In the space of a single week, two American states have crossed a grave moral threshold. New York and Illinois have both agreed to legalise assisted suicide, reinforcing the sense that what was once presented as an exceptional and tragic last resort is rapidly becoming normalised as public policy. The speed and confidence with which these laws have advanced should alarm anyone concerned about the protection of the vulnerable and the integrity of medicine.
In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul confirmed that she will sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act after securing a package of so-called safeguards. In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker has already signed “Deb’s Law”, making his state the first in the Midwest to permit physician assisted suicide. Together, these decisions mean that assisted suicide is now legal in thirteen US states and Washington DC, with more legislatures lining up to follow.
Governor Hochul’s justification deserves particular scrutiny. Writing in support of the bill, she acknowledged opposition from people of faith who believe that deliberately ending life violates its sanctity. Yet she went on to argue that her Catholic upbringing taught her that “God is merciful and compassionate”, and that this mercy includes permitting a lethal option for those facing suffering at the end of life. It is a striking claim, not least because it turns Christian teaching on its head.
The timing of Illinois’s decision sharpens the irony. Illinois has a deep Catholic heritage, and it is now the home state of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, elected earlier this year. No Pope, including Pope Leo XIV, has ever taught that assisting suicide is compatible with human dignity or divine mercy. On the contrary, Catholic teaching has consistently held that euthanasia and assisted suicide are morally wrong because they reject the inherent worth of every human life, regardless of suffering or prognosis.
Supporters of both laws lean heavily on the language of safeguards. New York’s legislation includes waiting periods, witness requirements, psychiatric assessments, and confirmation of prognosis. Illinois’s law contains similar provisions, alongside criminal penalties for coercion. Yet these measures do not resolve the central problem. Assisted suicide does not occur in a vacuum. It operates in societies marked by unequal access to healthcare, patchy palliative care, loneliness, disability discrimination, and subtle pressures to avoid being a burden.
Even Governor Hochul implicitly admitted this when she acknowledged that inadequate palliative care could leave people feeling compelled to choose death. That is not a hypothetical risk. It is an inevitable consequence of offering suicide as a medical option in systems already struggling to care for the sick and dying.
Opposition to these laws has come not only from religious groups. Disability advocates in Illinois warned that legalising assisted suicide sends a dangerous message that some lives are less worth protecting than others. Catholic bishops in both states argued that the laws abandon the vulnerable rather than serving them, and that true compassion lies in improving care, not facilitating death.
SPUC’s Communications Manager, Peter Kearney, says “What begins with terminal illness and six-month prognoses has, in places like Canada, expanded to include chronic illness, disability, and mental suffering. The United States is not immune to this pattern, however confident legislators may sound today. The passage of two assisted suicide laws in one week is not progress, but a warning. It shows how quickly moral boundaries can erode once care and mercy are severed from their true meaning. We hope that the pattern of redefining medicine to mean death will stop in England and Wales, and in Scotland, and that the similar legislation here will fail.”
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