In February of this year, the governor of the state of New York (United States) approved euthanasia—designated in the legislation as “assisted suicide”—by signing the Medical Aid in Dying Act, which will take effect in July 2026. The law authorizes adult patients with terminal illnesses and a life expectancy of less than six months to request medications to end their life. In response to this new scenario, the Catholic bishops of the state have issued a doctrinal document intended to guide the faithful in decisions related to the end of life.
The bishops of New York respond to the legalization
As the prelates themselves have explained, gathered in the New York State Catholic Conference, the text—titled «Now and at the hour of our death»—seeks to offer clear criteria in a legislative context that they consider profoundly altered.
The document begins with a realization: medical advances have expanded the possibilities of intervention at the end of life, but they have also generated increasingly complex moral dilemmas that require discernment.
Assisted suicide, qualified as active euthanasia
In the text, the bishops define assisted suicide as the act by which a person ends their life with the help of substances prescribed by a doctor. This practice is explicitly qualified as active euthanasia.
The prelates emphasize that it is an objectively immoral act, regardless of the intentions that may be alleged. In this regard, they warn that arguments based on compassion can mask a distorted conception of human dignity, especially when the value of life is relativized in situations of suffering or dependence.
Criteria on care at the end of life
The document reminds the faithful that they have a moral obligation to resort to ordinary means of preserving life, that is, those that offer a reasonable hope of benefit without involving disproportionate burdens.
In this framework, the bishops point out that nutrition and hydration—even when administered by artificial means—should be considered, in principle, ordinary care and, therefore, must be maintained.
However, they also specify that Catholic morality does not require prolonging life at any cost. When a treatment becomes excessively burdensome or ceases to provide real benefit, it may be legitimately suspended.
Rejection of a utilitarian view of life
The bishops insist that allowing death to occur naturally does not equate to causing death, but rather to accepting the limits inherent to the human condition.
In the final part of the document, they warn against the risk of withdrawing treatments with the intention of causing death or based on the idea that the patient’s life has lost its value. In their view, this logic would introduce a utilitarian view of the human person, incompatible with their intrinsic dignity.
With this intervention, the bishops of New York seek to offer moral guidance in a context marked by recent legislative changes, reaffirming the defense of life from its beginning to its natural end as a central principle of the Church’s teaching.