![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gavel_shadow_unsplash-678x381.jpg\" "\\"gavel_shadow_unsplash\\"\/")
\n(Image: Wesley Tingey \/ Unsplash.com)<\/p>\n
\n(Image: Wesley Tingey \/ Unsplash.com)<\/p>\n
On\u00a0July 17, 2026<\/a>, a scant two weeks after four orders of Catholic nuns<\/a>, joined by Bishop John Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Center on behalf of the Diocese, challenged\u00a0the new law, Senate Bill 138 <\/a>(\u201cThe Medical Aid in Dying Act\u201d),<\/p>\n Judge Anne M. Narducci rendered a significant, albeit possibly temporary, victory in favor of the plaintiffs. This was after Governor Kathy Hochul had signed it into law<\/a> on February 6, 2026, originally to be effective August 5, 2026.<\/a><\/p>\n Judge Narducci\u2019s four-page order in Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. James<\/a>, in a federal trial court in the Northern District of New York, entered a temporary restraining order preventing state officials from enforcing Senate Bill 138 against the plaintiffs and the facilities they operate.<\/p>\n Whether\u00a0Carmelite Sisters\u00a0is a permanent win remains to be seen, as a yet unscheduled hearing will take place in the coming months in what is the latest skirmish in the seemingly never-ending fight to protect both the sanctity of life and religious freedom in deep blue states such as New York.<\/p>\n This column first offers details about Senate Bill 138 and the related litigation from New York. It then offers analysis and commentary on the significance of Carmelite Sisters\u00a0for religious freedom, while reflecting on why Senate Bill 138 and similar laws dangerously seek to expand the already threatening practice of so-called assisted suicide that violates both Catholic teachings and human dignity.<\/p>\n New York Senate Bill 138<\/p>\n Under New York\u2019s draconian\u00a0Senate Bill 138<\/a>, medical professionals who are unwilling to prescribe medications allowing persons diagnosed with potentially fatal illnesses to hasten the end of their lives are still required to inform them of the right to terminate their time on earth.<\/p>\n Moreover, in perhaps the most dystopian section of the law, medical providers who refuse to violate their consciences (let alone their Hippocratic oaths to \u201cDo No Harm) are facing significant fines, the revocation of their professional licenses, and even incarceration because they follow their consciences.<\/p>\n The Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne<\/a> (who are still engaged in a battle with New York officials over whether they must comply with a law requiring nursing home operators such as themselves to use pronouns, assign rooms, and grant access to patients based solely on their self-proclaimed gender identities), the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, and the Little Sisters of the Poor, along with Bishop John O. Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, and the Diocese, filed suit on July 17, 2026 challenging Senate Bill 138.<\/p>\n The 108-page complaint the plaintiffs filed in Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. James<\/a>\u00a0charged, most notably, that New York\u2019s\u00a0Medical Aid in Dying Act<\/a>, as it interacts with the state\u2019s Palliative Care Information Act,<\/a> in regard to the care they provide, violated their First Amendment rights to the free exercise of religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n More specifically, the complaint alleged that the law would have interfered with their religious freedom and would have kept them serving the sick and dying in accordance with their Catholic beliefs. At the same time, Carmelite Sisters sought to defend the rights of terminally-ill patients, who choose to live out their final days in the care of religious providers who will neither invite them nor encourage them to end their lives voluntarily.<\/p>\n Having agreed with the plaintiffs that Senate Bill 138 violated their rights, Judge Narducci will convene a hearing at a later date she has yet to announce.<\/p>\n Judge Narducci will then rule whether her temporary ban in\u00a0Carmelite Sisters\u00a0against Senate Bill 138 will become permanent as applied to the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n Analysis and Commentary<\/p>\n Decades of pro-abortion court rulings have undeniably led to the loss of respect at the other end of the spectrum. The pro-death movement seeks to play, and even replace, God by removing Him from the natural course of events associated with the end of life. As the National Right to Life organization has made clear, a straight line<\/a> connects abortion to euthanasia or assisted suicide as supporters of these immoral practices demonstrate their clear lack of respect for life, regardless of the stage of an individual\u2019s development.<\/p>\n Although the American Catholic bishops have long led opposition to euthanasia,\u00a0<\/a>a\u00a0growing number of jurisdictions<\/a>, such as New York, which became the\u00a0thirteenth state<\/a>\u00a0to do so, have adopted such statutes. In addition, countries in\u00a0Europe<\/a> as well as nations including Australia, where it is called voluntary assisted dying<\/a>, and\u00a0Canada<\/a>, have adopted laws, usually referred to as Medical Assistance in Dying or MAID, terminology intentionally designed to sanitize suicide under the guise of providing humane care.<\/p>\n Yet, a recent report<\/a>\u00a0by the pro-life organization\u00a0Aging With Dignity<\/a> demonstrates that the egalitarian-sounding approach that pro-euthanasia supporters espouse is often far from the truth. Aging With Dignity\u2019s study made it clear that in the United States, \u201cnon-terminal conditions like lupus<\/a>, complications from a fall, anorexia, and diabetes all qualified people for suicide-affirming care, and there has been an explosion of people included in the ever increasing, but cryptic designation of \u2018other.\u2019\u201d So much for supposed \u201ccare\u201d for those with terminal illnesses.<\/p>\n The situation is no different in Canada, where its hard-pressed medical system\u2014which regularly experiences underfunding, staff shortages, and long wait times\u2014permits patients not experiencing life-ending illness<\/a> the option of ending their lives instead of receiving ordinary medical care. In fact, along with being the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada, a recent study revealed<\/a> that twenty military veterans were offered the unsolicited option of MAID rather than given ordinary medical care for their various conditions.<\/p>\n A particularly troubling dimension of New York\u2019s Senate Bill 138 and similar state laws is their potential impact on relationships between and among physicians, their patients, loved ones, and caregivers\u2014such as the faith-based plaintiffs in Carmelite Sisters. Difficulties can arise because New York\u2019s law pointedly requires doctors to ignore\u00a0perhaps the most two relevant elements<\/a>, in the Hippocratic Oath, according to which doctors must profess that \u201cI will do no harm\u201d and \u201cI will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Because New York\u2019s law leaves doctors potentially subject to such serious legal sanctions as fines, imprisonment, and loss of their licenses, their ability to provide the best independent professional judgments to patients, their families, and caregivers means that Senate Bill 138 undoubtedly would have seriously compromised their ability to act freely.<\/p>\n Further, at a time when patients and their loved ones are no doubt frightened, worried, and unsure what to do, it is nothing short of immoral on the part of politicians in the guise of legislators steeped in a culture of disrespect for life to demand that dedicated doctors violate their oaths and consciences by offering those with life-threatening illnesses assisted suicide as their only viable option instead of health care.<\/p>\n Hopefully, when Judge Narducci reconvenes the parties, she will finalize her order by respecting both religious freedom and the sanctity of life that New York\u2019s politicians ignored. I will write a follow-up when the judge renders her judgment.<\/p>\n If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating<\/a> to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> for more information on donating to CWR. Click here<\/a> to sign up for our newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Image: Wesley Tingey \/ Unsplash.com) On\u00a0July 17, 2026, a scant two weeks after four orders of Catholic nuns,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-313282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313282","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=313282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}