If people knew this about euthanasia ….
New York bishops released an updated guide, "Now and at the Hour of Our Death," to address end‑of‑life decisions amid the upcoming legalization of physician‑assisted suicide. The guide reiterates Catholic teaching that physician‑assisted suicide is morally wrong and urges faithful to avoid it. New York Governor Hochul signed legislation S.138/A.136 legalizing medical aid in dying for terminally ill patients with less than six months to live. Bishops emphasize that suffering can strengthen bonds and dignity, contrasting with proponents' framing of assisted suicide as "death with dignity."
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New York’s new law legalizing physician‑assisted suicide has prompted the state’s Catholic bishops to issue a revised guide on end‑of‑life decision‑making, reaffirming Church teaching that the practice is immoral and urging Catholics to plan medical care through the lens of their faith 1.
The legislation, S.138/A.136, was signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in February 2026 and permits “medical aid in dying” for terminally ill patients with less than six months to live 1.
The law is described by the governor as “death with dignity,” though the bishops reject this characterization.
The New York bishops state that assisted suicide is “objectively immoral” and must be avoided despite claims of compassion 1.
They emphasize that suffering does not strip a person of dignity and can instead deepen communal bonds and awareness of each person’s value.
The bishops released a new edition of Now and at the Hour of Our Death: A Catholic Guide to End‑of‑Life Decision‑Making.
The booklet explains Catholic doctrine on euthanasia, assisted suicide, ordinary vs. extraordinary treatment, and artificial nutrition and hydration 1.
It also outlines New York‑specific legal options for advance planning and urges Catholics to create advance directives before serious illness 1.
The National Catholic Bioethics Center in the United States offers information and a hotline for ethicist consultations 1.
An English website also provides educational material on end‑of‑life issues 1.
Investigate Catholic doctrine on physician‑assisted suicide
Catholic doctrine treats physician-assisted suicide (PAS) as morally impermissible because it is, in substance, cooperation in the killing of an innocent person—never a “real service” to the patient. At the same time, the Church strongly supports palliative care, proper pain relief, and—when appropriate—the refusal of burdensome, disproportionate treatments, always without intending death.
PAS is assistance provided so that a person can end his or her own life—typically by enabling the act (for example, by providing lethal medication). In Catholic moral analysis, the key issue is not “good intentions” but whether the act involves cooperating in (or perpetrating) the intentional killing of a human person.
The Catechism distinguishes intentional euthanasia as inherently gravely wrong: “Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder.”
It also states that direct euthanasia—ending the life of a handicapped, sick, or dying person—is “morally unacceptable,” and that an act or omission that causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes murder.
PAS is addressed directly by the Church’s teaching that assisting a suicide is unjust cooperation in an unlawful act.
A crucial Catholic distinction is between:
The Catechism teaches that even if death is imminent, “the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted,” and that the use of painkillers to alleviate suffering—even if it may risk shortening life—can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable.
So, Catholic doctrine allows medically appropriate pain relief and compassionate care; it does not permit interventions whose purpose is to cause death.
The Catechism calls suicide “seriously contrary to justice, hope, and charity” and “forbidden by the fifth commandment.”
It explains suicide’s moral disorder against love of self and neighbor, and against one’s relationship to God.
It also states that “voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law,” while noting that serious psychological disturbances, anguish, or fear can diminish responsibility.
St. John Paul II teaches that to “concur with the intention of another person to commit suicide and to help in carrying it out through so-called ‘assisted suicide’ means to cooperate in…an injustice which can never be excused, even if it is requested.”
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) likewise states that assisted suicide implicates another in despair and that “assisting in a suicide is an unjustified collaboration in an unlawful act.”
The Catechism’s teaching on euthanasia is absolute in moral character: direct euthanasia is “morally unacceptable,” and killing someone to eliminate suffering is murder and “must always be forbidden and excluded.”
The same moral reasoning appears in Evangelium Vitae: euthanasia is called “a false mercy,” and true compassion does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.
The CDF letter acknowledges that when requests arise from anguish and despair, the individual guilt may be reduced or even absent, but it adds that the “error of judgment…does not change the nature of this act of killing.”
This is consistent with the Catechism: even “the error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act.”
Catechism §2282 distinguishes between objective moral wrongdoing and the patient’s (or agent’s) subjective culpability: psychological disturbances, anguish, or fear can diminish responsibility for the one committing suicide.
However, the Church’s teaching remains firm that voluntary cooperation remains contrary to the moral law.
The USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services are direct: “Catholic health care institutions may never condone or participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide in any way.”
They also specify what patients requesting euthanasia should receive instead: “loving care, psychological and spiritual support, and appropriate remedies for pain and other symptoms so that they can live with dignity until the time of natural death.”
The same USCCB directives teach that:
The Catechism explicitly supports the moral legitimacy of using painkillers to alleviate suffering even when death might be shortened, so long as death is not intended.
John Paul II warns that it is morally important to clarify the difference between refusing burdensome/disproportionate treatment and “taking away the ordinary means of preserving life, such as feeding, hydration and normal medical care.”
The USCCB directives further reflect this pastoral-moral stance: medically assisted nutrition and hydration “should in principle be provided to all patients who need them,” because even in severe debilitation the patient retains full human dignity.
The CDF letter explicitly argues that it is “gravely unjust to enact laws that legalize euthanasia or justify and support suicide,” describing such laws as striking at the right to life that sustains other rights, wounding human relations and justice, and threatening trust.
John Paul II also urges public awareness of PAS’s moral objectionability and notes that legalization introduces “a direct threat to the persons least capable of defending themselves.”
The USCCB (in its policy teaching) states that “Laws that legitimize any of these practices are profoundly unjust and immoral,” and supports legislative efforts to end assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Catholic doctrine on physician-assisted suicide is firmly pro-life and intention-centered: the Church rejects PAS because it entails voluntary cooperation in killing, which is unjust even when the request arises from suffering. Instead, the Church directs Catholic healthcare and society toward palliative care, effective pain relief, psychological and spiritual support, and morally legitimate decisions to forgo disproportionate treatment—always ensuring that the care owed to the person is not replaced by an intention to end life.