Bishop Brennan urges Brooklyn’s Catholics to help defeat medical suicide bill

May 6, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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PROSPECT HEIGHTS — LEADERS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN are denouncing the state legislature’s Medical Aid in Dying Act (A136/S138), which the Assembly passed last week 81-67. The bill would “provide that a mentally competent, terminally ill adult with a prognosis of six months or less to live may request medication from their treating physician that they can decide to self-administer to hasten the patient’s death provided the requirements set forth in the act are met, and to provide certain protection and immunities to health care providers and other persons.”

Bishop Robert Brennan, leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, stated in a video, “This legislation threatens vulnerable populations by devaluing life based on condition or prognosis … Just think of the potential influence a law like this could have on insurance coverage decisions. That’s chilling. Finally, the law completely contradicts our efforts to prevent suicide.”

The bill has been delivered to the State Senate, where it has several Brooklyn co-sponsors, including Jabari Brisport (D-25), Zellnor Myrie (D-20), Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-23) and Julia Salazar (D-18)). Several members of the State Assembly from both parties voted against the bill, including Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (Democratic Party chair), Alec Brook-Krasny, William Colton, Lester Chang, Simcha Eichennstein and Latrice M. Walker.

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