Catholic Nuns Sue New York... to Stop State From Forcing Them to Help Patients Die

Four orders of Catholic sisters, several Catholic healthcare ministries and the Diocese of Rockville Centre sued New York on Friday, asking a federal court to block a state law that would force them to help terminally ill patients end their own lives.

The lawsuit, Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. James, was filed by the religious liberty law firm Becket on behalf of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict and the Little Sisters of the Poor. New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act takes effect Aug. 5 and would require healthcare providers who decline to prescribe suicide drugs to still counsel terminally ill patients about their "right" to obtain the drugs and refer them to a willing provider. Providers who refuse face steep fines, license revocation and criminal penalties.

"We bring Christ's unbounded love to elderly New Yorkers," said Mother Mary Rose Heery, prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, adding that the law strikes at the heart of that vocation.

Bishop John O. Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre said the diocese would never submit to what he called New York's "culture of death."

Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and lead attorney for the ministries, said the law "forces sick and dying people to consider suicide at their lowest moment."

Mother Alice Marie Monica of the Little Sisters of the Poor said her order has cared for the elderly poor for nearly 200 years and has no intention of changing course now. The ministries plan to file a motion for a preliminary injunction in the coming days, seeking to stop the law before it takes effect and exposes them to fines and sanctions for following their faith.

The Last Word

For nearly two centuries these orders have done the same quiet work: sitting at bedsides, praying with the dying and refusing to treat death as the answer to suffering. New York's law asks them to trade that vocation for a phone number and a prescription pad. Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, has long taught that the response to suffering is accompaniment, not abandonment, and that no state has the authority to conscript nuns into helping the people in their care die. These sisters are not standing in the way of mercy. They are among the last people in the room still offering it.

Related resources: Priests for Life on caring for the dying