Democrat NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Reaches Agreement with Legislature to Sign Assisted Suicide Bill

Democrat New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she will sign an assisted suicide bill for terminally ill individuals after working with the state legislature to make changes to the legislation.

The bill was sent to Hochul’s desk in June, where it remained for several months before she reached a compromise with Democrat lawmakers. New York will now become the 13th state, plus Washington, DC, that allows physicians to assist terminally ill people to kill themselves — all in the name of “choice,” compassion, and easing end-of-life suffering. Democrat-led Illinois became the 12th state to do so earlier this month.

Hochul said in a statement on December 17:

New York has long been a beacon of freedom, and now it is time we extend that freedom to terminally ill New Yorkers who want the right to die comfortably and on their own terms. My mother died of ALS, and I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and being powerless to stop it. Although this was an incredibly difficult decision, I ultimately determined that with the additional guardrails agreed upon with the legislature, this bill would allow New Yorkers to suffer less–to shorten not their lives, but their deaths.

Hochul said the bill will be passed with the new agreed-upon amendments, signed in January, and go into effect six months later to allow time for state health officials to put regulations in place to properly implement the law.

The bill, called the “Medical Aid in Dying” bill by supporters, would allow physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to people with a prognosis of six months or less to live. Before Hochul’s additions, critics of the bill raised concerns that it lacked important safeguards, such as a mandatory waiting period, a clear chain of custody for the lethal drugs, mandatory in-person appointments with doctors, and disclosure confirming the individual followed through in taking the drugs to end their own lives.

Hochul’s proposed amendments include:

• A mandatory waiting period of five days between when a prescription is written and when it is filled
• An oral request by a patient for assisted suicide that must be recorded by video or audio
• A mandatory mental health evaluation of the person seeking assisted suicide by a psychologist or psychiatrist
• A prohibition against anyone who may benefit financially from the assisted suicide of a patient from being eligible to serve as a witness to the oral request or interpreter for the patient
• Limiting assisted suicide in New York to New York residents
• Allowing religiously-oriented home hospice providers to opt out of offering assisted suicide
• Mandating that a violation of the law is classified as professional misconduct under the Education Law

Cardinal Timothy Dolan said in a joint statement with New York’s bishops that the law “signals our government’s abandonment of its most vulnerable citizens, telling people who are sick or disabled that suicide in their case is not only acceptable, but is encouraged by our elected leaders.” 

“Tragically, this new law will seriously undermine all of the anti-suicide and mental health care investments Governor Hochul has made through her tenure,” he said. “How can any society have credibility to tell young people or people with depression that suicide is never the answer, while at the same time telling elderly and sick people that it is a compassionate choice to be celebrated?”

Dolan continued:

While physician-assisted suicide will soon be legal here in New York, we must clearly reiterate that it is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching on the sacredness and dignity of all human life from conception until natural death and is a grave moral evil on par with other direct attacks on human life. We call on Catholics and all New Yorkers to reject physician-assisted suicide for themselves, their loved ones, and those in their care. And we pray that our state turn away from its promotion of a Culture of Death and invest instead in life-affirming, compassionate hospice and palliative care, which is seriously underutilized.

Advocates with the New York Association on Independent Living (NYAIL), a group that supports people with disabilities, said the bill was “signed at a time when supports like home care are facing eligibility restrictions and workforce shortages.” 

“The truth is, no amount of safeguards can protect people with disabilities. When people cannot access the care they need to live, and feel they have no real alternatives, there is no longer a promise of ‘choice,'” said Elizabeth McCormick, NYAIL’s Director of Advocacy.