{"id":252505,"date":"2026-06-02T18:45:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/252505\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T18:45:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:45:06","slug":"archbishop-hicks-warns-new-yorks-aid-in-dying-law-marks-a-new-and-frightening-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/252505\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop Hicks Warns New York’s Aid-in-Dying Law Marks a New and Frightening Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2018Life is no less beautiful when it is accompanied by illness or weakness, hunger or poverty, physical or mental diseases, loneliness or old age,’\u201d wrote Archbishop Ronald Hicks, quoting his predecessor Terence Cardinal Cooke in a new\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0for First Things, the publication of The Institute on Religion and Public Life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s Medical Aid in Dying Act, passed by both houses of the New York State legislature in 2025 and signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul<\/a> on February 6, the day of Archbishop Hicks\u2019 installation, will allow terminally ill patients to request lethal medication from a physician. In \u201cThe Throwaway Culture Advances,\u201d Archbishop Hicks called it \u201cthe latest assault on human life\u201d and warned that its enactment on August 5 opens a new and troubling chapter for the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this law becomes effective, a new and frightening era begins in New York,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHow long before this so-called \u2018compassion\u2019 for the terminally ill evolves from a \u2018choice\u2019 into an expectation to kill oneself for all sorts of vulnerable individuals, including those with disabilities, the elderly, and those in impoverished and medically underserved communities?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s experience and the slippery slope closer to home\u00a0<\/p>\n

Archbishop Hicks pointed to Canada as a cautionary example, noting that \u201clegislation that was allegedly intended only for the dying was quickly broadened to cover those with \u2018chronic\u2019 but not life-threatening illnesses, such as arthritis, who wish to seek a doctor\u2019s help in killing themselves.\u201d He added that Canada is set to expand its law further next year to include those\u00a0whose\u00a0only underlying condition is a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, or anorexia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The archbishop also drew a sharp contrast between the state\u2019s robust suicide prevention efforts, including police interventions, bridge signage, and youth programs, and its simultaneous embrace of physician-assisted death. \u201cHow at odds this is with the rush to help others to end their lives,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WATCH: \u2018Life After\u2019 Spotlights the Dangers of Assisted Suicide Bills for the Disabled Community<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Archbishop Hicks warned of the law\u2019s potential to shift end-of-life decisions away from individuals: \u201cWhat begins as a personal choice could lead to situations where external forces, such as government agencies or insurance companies, begin to influence or even dictate end-of-life decisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He pointed to\u00a0alternatives<\/a> already available in the archdiocese, including palliative care at Calvary Hospital and through the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. He also highlighted a resource from the New York State Catholic Conference, \u201cNow and at the Hour of Our Death: A Catholic Guide to End-of-Life Decision-Making<\/a>,\u201d as a guide for Catholics and others navigating end-of-life questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Archbishop Hicks closed by grounding his argument in Catholic teaching on the value of human life: \u201cOur lives belong to God, and it is incumbent on us to respect and protect our own lives, just as we rightly demand respect and protection for all human life, from conception until natural death.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read the full article\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c\u2018Life is no less beautiful when it is accompanied by illness or weakness, hunger or poverty, physical or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54764,54765,54568,5555,37203,6300,4840,38511,96718,9,11,10,33120,98562],"class_list":["post-252505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-archbishop-hicks","tag-archbishop-ronald-a-hicks","tag-archbishop-ronald-hicks","tag-archdiocese-of-new-york","tag-assisted-suicide","tag-catholic","tag-catholic-church","tag-hicks","tag-magnifica-humanitas","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-physician-assisted-suicide","tag-the-vatican"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}