{"id":310139,"date":"2026-07-30T21:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/310139\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T21:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:02:11","slug":"nys-catholic-conference-statement-on-enactment-of-new-yorks-assisted-suicide-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/310139\/","title":{"rendered":"NYS Catholic Conference Statement on Enactment of New York\u2019s Assisted Suicide Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately to the\u00a0Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988.<\/p>\n<p>Following is a statement by Dennis Poust, executive director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyscatholic.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York State Catholic Conference<\/a>, as the state\u2019s physician-assisted suicide law goes into effect:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn August 5, New York becomes the latest in a growing number of jurisdictions\u00a0where\u00a0state-sanctioned suicide is\u00a0authorized.\u00a0With this\u00a0sad milestone,\u00a0our\u00a0elected officials have turned the notion of \u201cdeath with dignity\u201d on its head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is,\u00a0human beings never lose their innate dignity, no matter how much their physical bodies betray them. Pushing suicide\u00a0drugs\u00a0on sick, disabled or dying New Yorkers\u00a0does not enhance their dignity; it only enhances a coarsening of our culture and the bottom lines for insurers and medical facilities.\u00a0It represents a failure of compassion, especially if lawmakers use this new law as an excuse to further delay appropriate investments in access to palliative and hospice care.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe unintended consequences\u00a0of this new law\u00a0are tragically\u00a0predictable,\u00a0since we already have seen them play out in other countries, including Canada, which in just a few short years expanded\u00a0its\u00a0law\u00a0to apply not only in cases of terminal illness\u00a0but\u00a0in cases of\u00a0chronic\u00a0illness and, effective next year,\u00a0mental illness. We\u00a0would also\u00a0expect the state\u2019s mixed messaging\u00a0on suicide\u00a0to lead to\u00a0an increase in suicides\u00a0in general, including\u00a0by young, physically healthy\u00a0people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Catholics, it is important to remember the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyscatholic.org\/posts\/nys-bishops-statement-gov-hochuls-plan-sign-assisted-suicide-bill\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">words of the Bishops of New York State<\/a>\u00a0from December 2025:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018While physician-assisted suicide will soon be legal here in New York, we must clearly reiterate that it is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching on the sacredness and dignity of all human life from conception until natural death and is a grave moral evil on par with other direct attacks on human life.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs our state enters this new era of assisted death on demand, the\u00a0Bishops ask all New Yorkers to pray for those facing difficult health crises, depression, disability,\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0end-of-life.\u00a0They also ask for prayers that our state citizens\u00a0reject the Culture of Death and\u00a0embrace a Culture of Life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The New York State Catholic Conference represents the Bishops of the state in working with government to shape laws and policies that pursue social justice, respect for life and the common good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5555,37831,37203,6300,4840,37510,895,426,9,11,32599,10,49,37207,51,50,37208,33120,340,115003],"class_list":["post-310139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-archdiocese-of-new-york","tag-assisted","tag-assisted-suicide","tag-catholic","tag-catholic-church","tag-dennis-poust","tag-governor-kathy-hochul","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-legislature","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-catholic-conference","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-nyscc","tag-physician-assisted-suicide","tag-suicide","tag-suicide-prevention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310139","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=310139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}