The Catholic bishops of New York state have unveiled a new website in their campaign against assisted suicide.

As state legislators gear up for a debate on physician-assisted suicide, the bishops announced the launch of www.catholicendoflife.org, a site designed to communicate Church teaching on the issue.

The site, the bishops stated, offers “moral clarity and guidance…regarding end-of-life decision-making” as legislators consider a Bill, A. 2129, Death With Dignity Act, which was first placed before the state Assembly on January 15, ahead of similar legislation introduced in the State Senate on February 13.

In a statement, the New York bishops said: “We would note that the title of the legislation itself—the ‘death with dignity act’—is biased against those persons who allow a natural death to occur, inferring that a natural death is somehow less dignified than assisted suicide. Similarly, language used throughout the legislation references ‘ending life in a humane and dignified manner,’ suggesting that allowing natural death to occur is ‘inhumane and undignified.’

In a 2011 document, ‘To Live Each Day With Dignity’, the US bishops’ conference described assisted suicide as “a terrible tragedy, one that a compassionate society should work to prevent”.

“A society that devalues some people’s lives, by hastening and facilitating their deaths, will ultimately lose respect for their other rights and freedoms,” the bishops warned in the same document. There are currently four US states where assisted suicide is legal: Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana, while, in addition to New York, Colorado and Alaska at the debating stage of proposed legislation.