(LifeSiteNews) — One day before casting his first vote at the conclave in the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan rebuked an assisted suicide bill that passed the state’s Assembly, or lower chamber, last Tuesday.
“This bill is a disaster waiting to happen,” His Eminence said in an op-ed for First Things. “The very idea of having a doctor give you a prescription to end your life prematurely is contrary to everything we cherish.”
For people of faith who believe in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death, the very idea of having a doctor give you a prescription to end your life prematurely is contrary to everything we cherish. @firstthingsmag: https://t.co/TRNuwRWUJr
— Cardinal Dolan (@CardinalDolan) May 6, 2025
Lawmakers approved the Medical Aid in Dying Act in New York by an 81-67 margin on April 29. According to a press release issued by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, the bill would “provide a mentally competent, terminally ill adult who has been given a prognosis of six months or less to live the ability to request medication from their treating physician for medical aid in dying.”
It would also “require both an oral request and a witnessed written request for the medication, as well as requiring at least two physicians determine that the patient has the capacity to make an informed decision on this request.”
The measure still needs to pass the New York state Senate and obtain the approval of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who identifies as a Catholic but has repeatedly supported policies directly at odds with immutable Church teaching.
Dolan rejected Heastie’s claim that the measure empowers New Yorkers to die with “dignity and choice.”
“State-sanctioned suicide turns everything society knows and believes about medicine on its head,” Dolan said. “Doctors go from healers to killers.”
“We’ve seen this happen in other states and countries that have enacted this fearsome legislation. Remember how abortion supporters’ mantra of ‘safe, legal, and rare’ was quickly cast aside, and now abortion is imposed, frequent and something to be celebrated. The same is true for assisted suicide,” he recalled.
Dolan also warned that the bill would act as a Pandora’s box used to pressure “the sick, elderly and the depressed to end their own lives.”
“Is it any wonder that insurance providers are often supporters of assisted suicide legislation, wanting to protect their bottom line from patients who might live an extra few weeks or months with proper care?” he asked.
At the same time, Heastie’s press release states that under the bill “insurers would be prohibited from recommending or providing information on medical aid in dying to patients, including alongside denial of coverage notices for other treatments.”
Assisted suicide is permitted in 10 U.S. states, including California, Montana, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, Vermont, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C.
