CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2020 / 10:58 am
Reflecting on the first anniversary of the taking effect of a New Jersey law allowing assisted suicide, Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen has encouraged Catholics to continue in unconditional respect for human life.
"We cannot be complacent and just accept that physician-assisted suicide is the law now in our state," Bishop Checchio said, according to an Aug. 12 statement from the Diocese of Metuchen. "When any human life, especially the weakest, is devalued by society it promotes a devaluing of all human life."
The Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act allows competent New Jersey residents deemed by two doctors to have fewer than six months to live to request lethal medication to end their lives. The patient must administer the medication themselves.
The law was approved by the New Jersey legislature in March 2019, and signed into law the following month. It took effect Aug. 1, 2019. It was temporarily halted by a judge in the state, but an appeals court allowed it to take effect while a legal challenge against it was being heard.