Dominican Nuns Sue New York over Assisted Suicide Law

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, along with a coalition of other Catholic health-care groups in New York, filed a lawsuit Friday in opposition to the state’s new assisted suicide law.

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The law in question, the Medical Aid in Dying Act, allows patients with less than six months to live to ask for drugs to end their lives. Another New York state law, the Palliative Care Information Act, requires health-care providers to inform terminally ill patients of all of their treatment options. When the assisted suicide law law takes effect on August 5, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and the 12 other faith-based health-care groups that joined the suit will be forced to violate their consciences by informing their patients of their “right” to kill themselves.

“New York has put the Sisters to a stark choice: either abandon their religious beliefs regarding the sanctity of life or face significant fines and penalties,” reads the . “Through its euphemistically-named Medical Aid in Dying Act, which builds upon requirements in the Palliative Care Information Act, New York has conscripted even religious healthcare providers and institutions to participate in the provision of physician-assisted suicide.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the assisted-suicide bill into law in February, touting the measure as a defense of bodily autonomy. “New Yorkers deserve the choice to endure less suffering, not by shortening their lives, but by shortening their deaths,” Hochul said at the time.

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have worked at Rosary Hill Home for 125 years. The facility, rooted in the Catholic faith, provides free end of life care for terminally ill patients.

This is not the first clash the sisters have clashed with New York State. Back in April, the sisters filed a complaint regarding a 2023 law that requires long term care facilities to affirm a patient’s espoused gender identity by housing them with the opposite sex, allowing them to use bathrooms that correspond with their chosen gender, and even calling them by their preferred pronouns.

Similarly to their most recent suit, the nuns claim the law contradicts their faith. Further, the Church of Christ, Scientist received an exemption from adhering to the law, while the Dominican Sisters have not received the same privilege.

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The Department of Justice recently signed onto the sisters’ suit. “States should take notice that they cannot require Americans to abandon their religious beliefs in the name of woke gender ideology,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon previously said in a statement.

While the Medical Aid in Dying Act includes an exemption that does not force religious health-care groups to actually prescribe or administer the assisted suicide drugs, facilities are still required to counsel patients on all of their end of life options, which includes assisted suicide. Further, the facility must counsel the patient on next steps, check the patient’s mental fitness, and work through the qualification process. Essentially, these health-care facilities must almost fully participate in the process of assisted suicide, minus the final step of procuring the drugs.

According to the groups’ lawyers, New York’s exemption is one of the strictest, requiring more participation than other far-left states such as California and Oregon.

Further, noncompliance comes with a hefty cost. Civil penalties include up to $2,000 per violation, the center risks losing its license, and violators can face up to a year of prison time.

The complaint explains the law violates the groups’ First Amendment rights insofar as the law forces health-care professionals to counsel patients on assisted suicide, but also because it undermines the Catholic Church’s ability to determine the policies of its health-care institutions. Further, the suit says the law conflicts with federal statutes banning Medicare and Medicaid dollars from funding assisted suicide, as several plaintiffs receive those funds.

Besides the Dominican Sisters, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Diocese of Rockville Centre and Catholic Health, and a network of five Long Island hospitals are included on the suit. The suit was first reported by The Free Press.

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