New York Catholic bishops equip faithful with end-of-life guide as assisted suicide law takes effect

NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) — As New York prepares for the decriminalization of physician-assisted suicide taking effect this summer, the Catholic bishops of New York State have released an updated guide to help the faithful navigate complex end-of-life decisions in harmony with the teaching of the Church.

The eight-page booklet, titled “Now and at the Hour of Our Death: A Catholic Guide to End-of-Life Decision-Making,” is a revised and updated 2026 edition published by the New York State Catholic Conference. It comes in direct response to the impending law, which the bishops had aggressively opposed prior to its passage last year.

The guidebook is divided into two main parts: the first summarizes core Catholic moral principles on end-of-life care, including opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia. The second part outlines practical legal options for advance care planning available in the state of New York.

Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, highlighted the booklet’s longstanding value, stating how the original edition “has been extremely popular for more than 15 years. Our hope is that many thousands more Catholics in the years to come will find ‘Now and at the Hour of Our Death’ to be a useful guide in what is by nature a very stressful time.”

“We urge Catholics to read the booklet and familiarize themselves with Catholic teaching on these issues and the options available in New York now, before they or their loved ones are facing a health crisis,” he recommended.

‘Human life is sacred and inviolable’

The booklet opens by acknowledging the double-edged nature of modern medicine. While technological advances can cure disease and prolong life, they also raise difficult questions.

“Difficult decisions may be made easier if we take the time to express our wishes before illness and the dying process occurs,” the booklet states in its introduction. “This guide is designed to simply explain the moral principles of Catholic teaching with regard to end-of-life decision-making and to outline the options that exist in New York State for advance care planning.”

At the heart of the document is the Catholic conviction that “human life is a sacred gift from God.” Drawing from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, it explains:

We are not the owners of our lives and, hence, do not have absolute power over life. We have a duty to preserve our life and to use it for the glory of God, but the duty to preserve life is not absolute. We may reject potentially life-prolonging interventions that are insufficiently beneficial or excessively burdensome. Suicide and euthanasia, however, are never morally acceptable options.

The bishops reaffirm the Church’s unequivocal rejection of both euthanasia and assisted suicide, citing Pope John Paul II who wrote in Evangelium Vitae, “Human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an indivisible good.”

Suffering does not diminish human dignity

Euthanasia is defined as “an action or an omission which of itself or by intention causes death, in order that all suffering may in this way be eliminated.”

Assisted suicide – “the voluntary termination of one’s own life using physician-prescribed chemicals or drugs” – “is considered active euthanasia.”

The guide declares: “Any formal or immediate material cooperation in such an act is a grave sin against human life,” and thus, as the Church teaches, will not only result in destructive temporal outcomes, but also, “if unrepented, leads us to the eternal death of hell (395).”

The bishops instead stress that suffering does not diminish human dignity but can instead become “an opportunity for finding oneness with Christ,” an instrument of redemption, sanctification, and salvation.

Ordinary vs. extraordinary care

A key distinction made in the booklet is between ordinary and extraordinary means of medical treatment. Catholics have a moral obligation to accept ordinary care – treatments that offer a reasonable hope of benefit without imposing excessive burdens on the patient, family, or community. Extraordinary or disproportionate treatments, however, may be morally refused.

“Sometimes the very same medical intervention can be morally obligatory (ordinary) in one case, but morally optional (extraordinary) in another,” the bishops note. For example, while a ventilator may be ordinary care for a relatively healthy person recovering from pneumonia, this may not be the case for a patient in the final stages of lung cancer.

Decisions in this regard require the virtue of prudence, the bishops say, and should consider the treatment’s risks, costs, pain, availability, and overall benefit. Furthermore, the prelates advise such decisions “should be done collaboratively with the patient or surrogate, family members, healthcare providers, and spiritual advisor.”

Never permissible to remove ordinary care to bring about death

The guide also addresses medically assisted nutrition and hydration, affirming the moral “obligation to provide patients with food and water including medically assisted nutrition and hydration for those who cannot take food orally,” even for those in a persistent vegetative state who are not imminently dying.

Exceptions are allowed only when death is imminent and the body can no longer assimilate them, or in rare cases of severe burden such as intractable pain or infection. Withholding in such circumstances, the guide states, allows natural death from the underlying illness, never with the intent to kill.

“It is never permissible to remove a feeding tube, or any other form of life-sustaining treatment, based on a belief that the patient’s life no longer holds value or with the intention to terminate the patient’s life,” the document affirms.

Healthcare proxy ‘the most morally appropriate advance care’ alternative

The second half of the booklet provides concrete guidance for New Yorkers on advance directives. It strongly recommends the healthcare proxy as “the most morally appropriate advance care planning tool in New York State,” allowing individuals to appoint a trusted agent familiar with their faith to make decisions when they cannot.

Sample language is suggested to explicitly forbid euthanasia and to empower the agent regarding nutrition and hydration “in accord with the teaching of the Catholic Church.”

While living wills are legally recognized, the bishops note they are less flexible because they attempt to pre-specify treatments for unknown future scenarios. Other options discussed include Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders and Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) forms, always with the caution that ordinary care must never be refused with the intention of hastening death.

‘Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death’

The bishops encourage Catholics to prepare these documents prayerfully while still competent, consulting family, physicians, and spiritual advisors.

“The best time to create an advance directive such as a healthcare proxy is now – before you enter a hospital or nursing home or become seriously ill,” the guide concludes. “Don’t delay.”

Finally, the bishops implore that while this guide to making practical decisions at such crucial moments should be helpful, “by no means” is it “a substitute for prayer.” At such times of “great distress, sorrow and fear,” they advise Catholics to invoke the Blessed Mother and the communion of saints to “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”

RELATED

New York bishops condemn Gov. Hochul’s assisted suicide bill as ‘grave moral evil’

Bishop Strickland condemns New York assisted suicide bill: ‘Offense against dignity of human life’

Cardinal Dolan denounces New York assisted suicide bill: ‘Disaster waiting to happen’

New York legislature passes bill to legalize assisted suicide