The newest freedom under “bodily autonomy” is the right to end your life on your own terms, according to leftist New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D). But a district court in New York City recently sided with Catholic nuns and ministries when they fought back against this attack on human dignity — and won. 

Last week, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty announced that the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre would not be required to help patients commit suicide, despite a New York State mandate that goes into effect on Wednesday. 

“It’s a tragedy that New York’s new assisted suicide law is soon to take effect in the coming days. In the shadow of this horrific new law, it is at least good to see the court uphold the conscience protections of Catholic nuns and several Catholic health care ministries who do not want to participate in this,” Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. 

“No health care worker should feel they must violate their conscience or lose their job,” she added. “And no faith-based health care institutions should fear being sued for not providing services that they believe are evil. It’s good to see the court, in this instance, ensure basic religious freedom and conscience protections.”

In December, Hochul signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act, which will “make medical aid in dying available to terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live,” starting on August 5. 

On July 31, Becket announced that “With agreement from the state of New York, a federal judge ordered the state not to enforce its assisted-suicide mandate against four orders of Catholic nuns and several Catholic healthcare ministries while their federal lawsuit proceeds. The temporary agreement protects the ministries from being forced to help terminally ill patients end their lives via suicide in direct violation of their faith.” 

Applauding the compromise, Bishop John Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York said, “This agreement is an important first step towards protecting religious freedom. New York cannot force the Church to answer suffering with suicide or abandon the sick and dying when they need care most. Until our legal fight is resolved, this temporary agreement keeps our ministries free to serve every patient according to the Gospel. We continue to proclaim that every human life is sacred and worthy of love until its natural end.” 

The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1997 in Washington v. Glucksberg that patients do not have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. 

During the first Trump administration in 2019, President Donald Trump issued a rule that “expands the rights of medical professionals to refuse to provide treatments or services that they say infringe their religious beliefs, such as … assisted suicide,” according to the British Medical Journal. 

However, assisted suicide is becoming more prevalent, now that it has been authorized in 13 states and Washington, D.C for those who are terminally ill. In Canada, it may soon be legal for those with mental illness to receive physician-assisted suicide as well. 

The Canadian government said in 2019 it “would delay including them [people whose sole chronic condition is mental illness] for two years in order to draft special guidelines for assessing their eligibility,” with the intention of eventually legalizing it for them, The New York Times reported last year.

The Catholic ministries in New York believe what Scripture teaches: the Lord directs our steps. It is not the will of mere mortals that numbers our days here on Earth, but God’s. 

“Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day,” reads Job 14:5-6. 

On the other side, Senior Campaign Director for Compassion & Choices NY/NJ Corinne Carey claimed, “This law is about compassion, family, love, and respect for bodily autonomy.”

Except it’s not.

For those who aren’t in Christ, death only leads to eternal suffering, the direct opposite of the kind of compassionate relief Hochul and Carey believe physician-assisted suicide offers. 

For the healthy, the sick, the rich, and the poor, true freedom can only be found in the gospel, as stated in Romans 8:18-20: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”