Queen of Peace Residence’s chapel was filled for a Grandparents’ Day Mass celebrated by Bishop Brennan and concelebrated by Father Joseph Gibino in Queens.
Queen of Peace Residence’s chapel was filled for a Grandparents’ Day Mass celebrated by Bishop Brennan and concelebrated by Father Joseph Gibino in Queens.
The Medical Aid in Dying Act, which would allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with doctor-prescribed drugs, has new life, having passed the New York State Assembly with an 81-67 vote on April 29.
The New York Assembly April 29 passed a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the state, despite strong opposition from the state’s Catholic bishops.
While New York legislators argue that assisted suicide legislation would allow terminally ill patients to die with dignity, the state’s Catholic bishops on March 5 countered that it would put the state on a “dangerous path that contaminates medicine and turns the notion of compassion on its head.”
Nineteen states this year are considering legislation to allow doctors to prescribe end-of-life drugs to terminally ill patients.
Canada’s Catholic bishops have deemed the government’s decision to postpone an expansion to assisted suicide laws to include people suffering solely from mental illness “not good news,” citing the government’s unwavering commitment to the legislation.
When California in 2021 relaxed its physician-assisted death rules — easing access to the lethal means for residents to take their own lives — several lawmakers behind the change cited a desire to aid the terminally ill, invoking a sort of legislative altruism.
Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed a bill May 2 that makes the state the first to change its assisted-suicide law to allow terminally ill nonresidents to make use of it.
The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life affirms his opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide but believes that to end confusion in the country, the Italian Parliament needs to make clear laws about withdrawing end-of-life care, his office said.
Canada’s Catholic bishops said the possible pressures the country’s new assisted suicide law will place on Canadians with mental illness or disabilities are “all too real, perilous and potentially destructive.”