New York says Catholic sisters will not be required to participate in assisted suicide

The state’s decision allows the sisters to continue “loving service to Christ’s poor” without being forced to engage in euthanasia.

A coalition of religious sisters in New York state won a major victory in federal court this week when the state agreed to not force the sisters to participate in New York’s looming assisted suicide regime.

The lawsuit had been brought earlier in July by four communities of religious sisters in the state. U.S. District Judge Anne Nardacci on July 30 issued the consent order holding that the government is “barred from requiring that [the sisters]” participate in the assisted suicide process in any way while their lawsuit proceeds.

The suicide law itself is scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 5.

The decision was announced by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the sisters in the suit along with Rockville Centre Bishop John Barres.

Mother Mary Rose Heery, OCarm, the prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, said in the legal group’s press release that families “entrust their loved ones to us” and that the sisters were “grateful that we can continue honoring that trust and remain beside every resident until the very end.”

“[The state’s] decision not to enforce this law against us means that we can continue our loving service to Christ’s poor,” Mother Marie Edward, OP, the superior general of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, said in the announcement.

Barres, meanwhile, called the consent order an “important first step toward protecting religious freedom” in the state.

“New York cannot force the Church to answer suffering with suicide or abandon the sick and dying when they need care most,” the bishop said.

“Until our legal fight is resolved, this temporary agreement keeps our ministries free to serve every patient according to the Gospel,” he said.

New York’s assisted suicide law has drawn pushback from Catholic advocates. In December 2025 the state’s Catholic bishops described assisted suicide as a “grave moral evil” and said the law signals the state government’s “abandonment of its most vulnerable citizens.”

New York cannot force the Church to answer suffering with suicide.”

Bishop John Barres

Diocese of Rockville Centre

New York’s assisted suicide law has drawn vigorous pushback from Catholic advocates. In December 2025 the Empire State’s Catholic bishops described assisted suicide as a “grave moral evil” and said the law signals the state government’s “abandonment of its most vulnerable citizens.”

The suicide law “[tells] people who are sick or disabled that suicide in their case is not only acceptable but is encouraged by our elected leaders,” the bishops argued.

In addition to the Catholic legal filing, disability advocates filed suit against the New York law earlier this year, arguing that it threatens the lives of people with disabilities there.

The suit, filed in federal court in June alongside a similar suit against a new assisted suicide regime in the state of Illinois, argued that the New York law does not require medical officials to “consider a patient’s psychiatric or psychological condition or how that may affect their suicidality” when they ask for help in dying, potentially leading to the euthanasia of patients who are not suffering from terminal conditions. A federal judge dismissed that suit on July 30.

When it legalized assisted suicide in February, New York became the 13th state in the U.S. to allow doctors to help kill patients.

Farther to the north, Canada has had nationally legalized assisted suicide for about a decade, during which about 100,000 people have taken their lives under the program.