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POVERTY AWARENESS
Here in our Diocese, parishes participate in the annual Public Policy Weekend every February, when parishioners speak out with one voice on an issue related to Catholic Social Teaching. As Catholics we believe in the sanctity of every human life, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. In defense of vulnerable people at the end stages of life, parishes around the diocese will be collecting signatures in opposition to the legalization of physician-assisted suicide during Public Policy Weekend in February. Please
join your voice with thousands of others in speaking up for the dignity of human life.
Legislation has been introduced in the New York State Legislature that would allow doctors to legally prescribe a lethal dose of pills at the request of a terminally ill patient. While proponents call these bills “death with dignity” and “patient self-determination,” in reality they are unnecessary, flawed and
dangerous. New York must maintain its ban on assisted suicide.
The legislation offers no protections to ensure that the patient is not being coerced into ingesting the drugs, or even to prevent another person from administering the drugs. While legal witnesses must be present at the time of the request, one of them can be someone who stands to gain financially from
the patient’s death. Legalized assisted suicide empowers others – family members, health care systems, insurance companies – to pressure and exploit older, weaker, vulnerable persons in order to get them to cut short their lives.