Governments have forced religious organizations to pay for abortions. The new frontier: “assisted suicide.”
Becket Law represents groups of Catholic nuns and healthcare ministries in New York who do not want to help terminally ill patients to kill themselves — a violation of their faith.
The new law takes effect on August 5. The religious plaintiffs have asked a federal court to block enforcement and protect their religious freedom. Otherwise, they face fines, professional sanctions, and criminal penalties. An excerpt:
Following their Catholic faith, these ministries cannot prescribe lethal suicide drugs, direct patients to obtain them, or help facilitate a patient’s suicide in any way. Yet New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID) will force them to do exactly that.
Becket Law asserted that federal law bars the state from discriminating against healthcare providers that oppose “assisted suicide.” This is obvious discrimination. Even secular providers should be able to decide whether to help patients kill themselves.
“For over 125 years, we have ministered to the poor who are dying of cancer as if they were Christ Himself,” said Mother Marie Edward, O.P., Superior General of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. “Our calling is to offer comfort, prayer, and loving medical care to those in their final days—not death. We pray the court will protect our freedom to remain faithful to that ministry God has entrusted to us.”
It is outrageous that New York is trying to force nuns to help kill patients. Secularists may not hold anything sacred, but religious people do.
Photo credit: BECKET
