At anniversary of Dobbs’ decision, faithful reminded that assisted dying goes against pro-life
At a recent Pro-life Mass at Holy Family Parish in Nutley celebrating the anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the homily reminded us as Catholics we respect all life from conception to natural death unassisted by New Jersey’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill law.
New Jersey’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act (MAID) was enacted in August 2019 after proponents argued that terminally ill people have the right to “die with dignity.”
The law allows an adult resident, who has the capacity to make health care decisions and who has been determined by a physician to be terminally ill, to obtain medication that the patient self-administers to end his or her life. According to reports by the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner, from the date of the law’s enactment through 2021 (the most recent data), 95 patients ended their lives under MAID in New Jersey.
In response to the law’s passage, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss,R., Archbishop of Newark, reminded the faithful that because Catholics respect all life, they must oppose “threats to human life and dignity evident in contemporary society,” including abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia or assisted suicide.
“We must be clear. What legislatures now refer to as ‘death with dignity’ is legal permission for one to end their own life with a lethal overdose of prescription drugs,” Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin wrote. “This new state law has become an answer to addressing one’s fear of affliction or suffering. What is more, in a for-profit industry like health care, there is the real danger that euthanasia will be seen as a cost-cutting measure. There is evidence in states that have already legalized assisted suicide that insurers encourage this ‘solution’ instead of more costly medical care. The handicapped and impaired will feel pressure to end their lives.”
Cardinal Tobin said dying patients who request euthanasia should instead receive loving care, psychological and spiritual support, and appropriate remedies for pain and other symptoms so they can live with dignity until the time of natural death.
The Catholic Church teaches that death, the separation of the soul from the body, is “the end of earthly life” and entered the world as “a consequence of sin,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1007-1008). It teaches, “Christian death has a positive meaning” because it leads to everlasting life in Christ for the believer. Therefore, the catechism explains, suicide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia are morally unacceptable as “God remains the sovereign Master of life.”
According to Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father’s will. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.”
As a result, many Catholic organizations and individuals have joined Cardinal Tobin in condemning MAID. This includes Dr. Michael Giuliano, a neonatal physician and permanent deacon at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Tenafly, who spoke to a group of deacons and their wives about the law and issues surrounding the right to life for everyone earlier this year. He told them he opposes MAID.
“The New Jersey law gives the power to kill someone and asks the doctor to be the executioner,” he said.
Giuliano recommended using catholicendoflife.org, which allows for advanced end-of-life planning and offers directives to have on file. The directive not only states the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s guidance on end-of-life issues but also allows assignment of a designated person as a healthcare representative to make healthcare decisions, treatment choice, and organ donation instructions.
MAID was also challenged by another physician, Dr. Yosef Glassman, a geriatrician and rabbi, who argued the law goes against his religion and oath as a doctor. But in June 2022, the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court upheld a decision that dismissed Glassman’s challenge. The state had argued the law is voluntary and does not require a doctor who opposes it to write that prescription. If the doctor opposes the law, he or she only has to transfer the medical file upon request.
Still, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) maintains that any law allowing for euthanasia violates the Hippocratic Oath that has guided physicians for millennia, which states “I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.”
Today, many people fear the dying process — the pain, losing control over bodily function, dementia, and the burden they might be on loved ones, according to the USCCB. But that does not mean euthanasia should be condoned, it argues. “Our society can be judged by how we respond to these fears. A caring community devotes more attention, not less, to members facing the most vulnerable times in their lives,” the USCCB stated.
The USCCB stated that, in the end, “to live in a manner worthy of our human dignity, and to spend our final days on this earth in peace and comfort, surrounded by loved ones—that is the hope of each of us.”
The final days are a time to prepare for our eternal destiny, the Catholic Church believes.
“At the end of life, we stand in the vestibule of heaven. It is a sacred time. It is a time of preparation for the moment we definitively return to God,” according to the Sisters of Life, a religious order formed in 1991 in New York. The sisters take a vow to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life and are dedicated to working for an end to abortion and euthanasia.
Questions have been raised on the morality and ethics surrounding right-to-die laws in New Jersey and the U.S. since 1975, when a New Jersey women lapsed into a coma. Karen Ann Quinlan, a 21-year-old from Morris County, remained in a vegetative state until her death 10 years later.
For the Quinlans, who were devout Catholics, the issue was over the use of “extraordinary means,” or a ventilator, to prolong her life when she was in a permanent vegetative state.
Today, the right-to-die movement has gone beyond challenging health initiatives that may unnecessarily prolong life to physician-assisted suicide when a person has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Oregon was the first state to pass legislation in 1997 allowing for physician-assisted suicide. Twelve states now have some right-to-die legislation.
Featured image: A demonstrator against “assisted dying” joins a 2015 protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London. Angie Wingert, part of the leadership team of the St. Wenceslaus Parish pro-life group in Omaha, Neb., said the faithful must work on environmental issues, euthanasia, assisted suicide and any number of causes that support life. (CNS photo/Stefan Wermuth, Reuters) See SUPPLEMENT Sept. 6, 2018.
