Catholic Nuns Score Temporary Win In Battle Against New York’s Assisted Suicide Law:
A group of Catholic nuns and health care ministries scored a temporary court win on Thursday in their challenge against New York’s physician-assisted suicide law.
In a four-page filing, the Empire State agreed to a temporary restraining order (TRO) by Biden-appointed Judge Anne Nardacci that momentarily bars government officials from enforcing the contested statute against the Catholic challengers. The directive will remain in effect as Nardacci considers the plaintiffs’ motion for emergency relief and the state’s cross-motion to dismiss the complaint.
At issue in Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. James is New York’s recently passed Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID), which grants terminally ill adults the ability to request that their physician administer life-ending drugs. The statute lays out the process by which patients may do so, as well as the form language they must use when filing such a request.
The plaintiff Catholic nuns and health care ministries allege that the law — in conjunction with the state’s Palliative Care Information Act — “conscript[s] even religious healthcare providers and institutions to participate in the provision of physician-assisted suicide.” They claim that these statutes’ provisions violate their First Amendment rights because they require “medical providers caring for terminally ill New Yorkers … to proactively inform and counsel their patients about their ‘option’ to kill themselves,” a mandate at odds with the Catholic Church’s teachings.
In their initial lawsuit, the plaintiffs asked Nardacci to grant their requests to bar the state and its officials from enforcing the contested provisions against them before the MAID Act takes effect on Aug. 5. They additionally requested that the court declare that the MAID Act and PCIA “violate the First Amendment by impermissibly infringing on Plaintiffs’ authority to govern their internal religious affairs free from government interference.” --->READ MORE HERE
New York says Catholic sisters will not be required to participate in assisted suicide:
The state’s decision allows the sisters to continue “loving service to Christ’s poor” without being forced to engage in euthanasia.
A coalition of religious sisters in New York state won a major victory in federal court this week when the state agreed to not force the sisters to participate in New York’s looming assisted suicide regime.
The lawsuit had been brought earlier in July by four communities of religious sisters in the state. U.S. District Judge Anne Nardacci on July 30 issued the consent order holding that the government is “barred from requiring that [the sisters]” participate in the assisted suicide process in any way while their lawsuit proceeds.
The suicide law itself is scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 5.
The decision was announced by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the sisters in the suit along with Rockville Centre Bishop John Barres.
Mother Mary Rose Heery, OCarm, the prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, said in the legal group’s press release that families “entrust their loved ones to us” and that the sisters were “grateful that we can continue honoring that trust and remain beside every resident until the very end.”
“[The state’s] decision not to enforce this law against us means that we can continue our loving service to Christ’s poor,” Mother Marie Edward, OP, the superior general of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, said in the announcement.
Barres, meanwhile, called the consent order an “important first step toward protecting religious freedom” in the state. --->READ MORE HERE
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