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A Free-Exercise Challenge to NY's Medically Assisted-Suicide Law

Mark Movsesian | 7.29.2026 8:56 AM

A group of Catholic healthcare providers has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to enjoin enforcement of New York's new Medical Aid in Dying Act. Among other things, the plaintiffs allege that the Act, which takes effect next month, violates their rights under the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause.

The litigation is at a very early stage. New York has not yet responded. Still, if the statutory regime operates as the plaintiffs allege, they appear to have a pretty good free exercise argument.

The controversy concerns a practice supporters call medical aid in dying and opponents call medically assisted suicide. I will generally use the latter term because it more directly describes the act the statute authorizes: a physician provides medication that a patient may administer to himself to end his life.

New York's existing Palliative Care Information Act requires physicians and nurse practitioners to offer terminally........

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