I know it’s not a cheery topic, but the website EndAssistedSuicide.org is important and instructive.
And, yes, the life it saves may be your own — or that of someone you love.
When assisted suicide comes to town, it is marketed with the typical euphemisms that are indicative of what John Paul II called the “culture of death”: compassion, choice, mercy, dignity.
(JPII, by the way, knew a few things about the world, having lived under the Nazis and Soviets, and who, well, ultimately took down Soviet communism with two of his friends (hat tip to John O’Sullivan and his most excellent book, The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World).
Never mind that the advocates at Compassion & Choices were once known as the Hemlock Society.
In truth, not only does medically assisted suicide involve doctors in actively ending the lives of their patients — the laws also undermine the Americans with Disabilities Act, which might as well be the legal equivalent of apple pie at this point.
As the website, consisting of “individuals with disabilities and non-profit organizations that work for disability and patient rights,” explains:
The ADA defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life functions. The ADA also protects people who have a record of such an impairment, even if they do not currently have a disability, as well as individuals who do not have a disability but are regarded as having a disability. . . .
People with life-threatening disabilities . . . are not afforded the same criminal, civil, and professional liability protections as everyone else where assisted suicide is on the books. When they get suicide assistance on the basis of their disability, namely the condition that is given a 6-month or less prognosis, this is treating members of a protected class in a different way than everyone else, thereby violating the anti-discrimination law that protects the civil rights and inherent equal human dignity of people with disabilities.
Assisted suicide law must be struck down as unlawful discrimination in violation of the ADA.
If you’ve got less than six months to live, you can opt for a lethal prescription. And if you have a disability, the same option will be offered to you — keeping you from the typical support and suicide-prevention services that patients normally would have access to.
In New York, assisted suicide gets real on August 5. That’s why all those nuns have asked for their basic freedoms to not be forced to participate — which they won’t, putting them in violation of state law. On Thursday afternoon, a judge dismissed a lawsuit from patients with disabilities trying to get the law thrown out, arguing that they didn’t have standing.
Well, that sure won’t last long. Disability is going to open the door to a new kind of mis-care come Wednesday.
“When states legalize assisted suicide while simultaneously cutting home care and community-based services, they send a dangerous message: that death is a solution for disability and lack of support,” Sharon Shapiro, a board member at the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, told the New York Post when the End Assisted Suicide Coalition case was filed.
As the dismissal dropped, I interviewed Matt Valiere from the Institute for Patients’ Rights, involved in that and similar legal challenges to assisted-suicide laws around the country. Watch here. He’s hopeful they’ll be successful. I’m grateful this poison puts a spotlight on some of the people who provide the kind of care that alleviates the concerns that make people consider assisted suicide in the first place.
Watch an earlier interview with a Dominican Sister of Hawthorne and Becket Fund lawyer on their work defending religious liberty in the face of the Empire State law here.
Meanwhile, across the pond, the new British prime minister just did the best that could be expected, frankly, on assisted suicide: He said, let’s work on palliative care and hospice. (Here’s a clip.)
Of course, he means first. I expect that he or whomever the next prime minister is might go all in for assisted suicide eventually.
But, then again, I shouldn’t be so defeatist.
The mere fact that there has been a pause in the push for legalizing doctor-assisted suicide in the U.K. is a reason to be encouraged. Again, there’s an education that comes in the debate and legal challenges on both sides of the Atlantic: Palliative and hospice care both alleviate some of the anguished worries that lead patients and their loved ones to opt for “suicide.”
London Times editorial: Deeply flawed assisted dying legislation should remain in the grave.
Whatever your view of the ethics of the state sanctioning doctors to dispense lethal doses of drugs to their patients, the suggestion that before contemplating such a momentous step the government should first radically improve end-of-life care is surely correct.
Death Be Not Proud
On July 28, Florida executed two death-row prisoners, the first time the Sunshine State has done that — two on one day — since the Supreme Court reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
Florida is doing the most executions in the country.
Look, I know not everyone who considers themselves pro-life is going to agree with me on this. And my argument, such that it is, about Tuesday is certainly not going to convince you: It’s just gross — not quite a moral or legal or theological assessment. But I’d like to think it is a good thing for such a thing to not sit well with us.
As you might expect, the Catholic bishops contend that “bloodless means are sufficient to punish offenders and protect public safety.”
They remind us:
Four years after issuing Evangelium Vitae [“The Gospel of Life”], at a papal Mass in St. Louis, MO, St. John Paul II stated that “a sign of hope” of the new evangelization, which calls followers of Christ to be unconditionally pro-life, “is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done evil,” and then renewed his call “for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.”
I’d underscore the cruel part, given recent strained and botched executions.
Obviously, I know there are debates about this — Augustinian just-war tradition called upon in the defense of capital punishment, for one (although the present pope, a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, doesn’t play that card). But the circumstances where capital punishment is necessary simply do not exist in the United States. Look, I understand the arguments for it. But life is already treated so callously. When the state kills unnecessarily — or recklessly in war — we are sending a message that feeds the throwaway culture. If you’re pro-death-penalty in Florida in 2026 and elsewhere, you probably don’t care that one of the inmates was 80. They both committed heinous crimes. But “thou shalt not kill” means something, and the law teaches.
Yeah, I know, I’m not convincing you. But when people are not sure where they stand on the killing of the innocent unborn and their parents, I’d like to err on the side of consistency in defending the inviolability of human life.
Other Things
Massachusetts is moving closer to having no limits on late-term abortions.
A Concerned Women for America Zogby poll finds:
Over 67% (67.6%) definitely or probably believe that the FDA should again require an in-person doctor’s visit before dispensing the abortion drug.
Rachel Mackley-Bailey in the London Times: My unborn daughter has Down’s syndrome. I can’t wait to meet her.
There was about a 95 per cent chance our daughter had Down’s syndrome, a genetic condition caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. There were a lot of “I’m so sorrys” on that call, and the doctor told me I urgently needed to attend the Early Pregnancy Unit to discuss my options. Everything was said with kindness but I came away feeling that one of the main options I was expected to consider was ending the pregnancy. . . .
My head was full of fear and uncertainty, but it wasn’t the first time pregnancy had thrown us an unexpected curveball. . . . Parenthood had already taught me that life rarely follows the script you imagine. Fundamentally, my daughter’s life had worth simply because she was my daughter and I trusted myself to rise to whatever challenges lay ahead. . . . I was frightened, but I also felt fiercely protective of her.
Daniel Darling in World: Lifting burdens for would-be parents.
Maronite Bishop Gregory Mansour on the gifts that both the Eastern and Western Catholic Church have to give in the theology of life (audio interview here).
I thought some of you would appreciate this from X:
No one tells you that an out of the blue call from your grown child just to chat for over an hour is better than winning the lottery. I mean, I am only guessing here since I have never actually won the lottery, but getting to just chat with my son last night was pure magic.
I pray you get that call if you’ve been longing for it.
And how precious is this ultrasound capture of an unborn baby smiling at her father’s voice?
Around National Review
• Michael New: Pennsylvania’s Medicaid Program Starts Covering Elective Abortion
Wesley J. Smith:
• New Bill Proposes to Establish a ‘Commission on Human Dignity’
• Michigan Courts: Chimpanzees Not ‘Persons,’ but One Justice Dissents
• Mainstream Bioethics Does Not Represent Mainstream Beliefs
Me:
• Religious Liberty Isn’t a Given in Kathy Hochul’s New York
• Saints of New York — Thanking God Ahead of Time with Solanus Casey
Upcoming
• Sisters of Life Final Profession of Vows, August 6, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City.
• 2026 Virtual Frosty 5K Run for Adoption, August 7–23.
• Care Net National Conference, August 18–21, Houston, “Seek First His Kingdom.”
• 2026 Women’s Convention: A Declaration of Interdependence, September 17–19, Rochester, N.Y.
• September 12: The new Gianna’s House in Yonkers, N.Y., will host a charity walk, “Pura Vida: A Walk for Life and Community.” It’s a family-friendly event with picnic options, lunch, games, and music on beautiful suburban grounds for those not up for the walking. Details and register here.
• Pennsylvania March for Life, September 21, Harrisburg.
• Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit, September 23–25, Atlanta. “Fewer Branches. Better Fruit.”
• 23rd Annual Great Defender of Life Dinner, September 28, NYC — Honoree: Cardinal Timothy Dolan (introduced by KJL).
• Rehumanize Conference, October 16–18, Chicago (accepting proposals through August 15). The theme is “Rehumanizing Immigrants,” with a specific track on serving pregnant women.
• Center for Christianity & Public Life: For the Good of the Republic Conference, October 5–7, Washington, D.C.: “Civic Renewal for America’s Next 250.”
Alright, that’s it for now. Please, please, please: Think creatively. How can you make your part of the world more hospitable to life?
I was just on the phone with a couple who are waiting for the fostering call.
It doesn’t have to be that, but we are called to something more to help make abortion less likely in the lives of people we encounter.
Keep in touch and keep coming back.
Thanks. With prayers for you and the good that you do.