Kathy Hochul Opens the Door to Euthanasia With Her Assisted Suicide Bill

To the surprise of absolutely no one, New York Governor Hochul has said that in January, after some minor changes are added, she will sign the bill legalizing assisted suicide. From the Spectrum News 1 story:

Hochul said the new amended bill will include additional safeguards, or “guardrails,” to protect family members, caregivers and doctors and ensure that vulnerable populations are not pressured or misled.

Of course, these “guardrail” protections–such as they are–will come under sustained assault once the law goes into effect as “barriers” to a good death. They are unlikely to last for very long

But let’s take a look at some of the supposed improved protections:

A mandatory waiting period of five days between when a prescription is written and filled.

Assisted suicide laws used to require a 15-day waiting period, so you can see the liberalization started even before the bill was signed.

An oral request for medical aid in dying must be recorded by video or audio.

Not much different than signing a form.

A mandatory mental health evaluation by a psychologist or psychiatrist.

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These exams are likely to be cursory and probably won’t stop terminally ill people with depression from suicide, nor those with other mental illnesses, as most suicide facilitation laws only require that the suicidal patient be “capable,” that is, have the ability to make and communicate decisions. Depressed and mentally ill people are often quite “capable.”

Limiting access to New York residents.

This is an improvement, such as it is. But remember, one can become a New York resident quite easily, within days, actually.

Requiring that the initial physician evaluation be in person.

Believe it or not, some states allow virtual assisted suicide examinations. This is better, for what it is worth.

Allowing religiously-oriented home hospice providers to opt out of offering medical aid in dying.

The devil will be in the details here. And conscience rights shouldn’t be limited to religiously oriented facilities, as assisted suicide is a direct violation of the hospice philosophy of care — which includes suicide prevention — a potential protection the governor did not insist upon.

Extending the effective date to six months after signing to allow the Department of Health and healthcare facilities to implement regulations and train staff.

Continuing “medical” education on making patients dead. This is the state to which the profession has descended from the days when the Hippocratic Oath held sway.

The sponsor of the bill justified radically changing the ethics of medicine in New York with a sophistic comment:

“Since we first introduced this legislation nine years ago, I have consistently said this bill is not about ending life, it’s about shortening death,” he said.

Dying isn’t dead; it is a sometimes very difficult stage of living. We should provide people with the care they need so that they do not want immediate death rather than abandoning them to poison pills.

Hochul approached the issue as if religion were the only reason to oppose assisted suicide.

In an opinion piece published in the Albany Times Union, Hochul acknowledged that her decision may be rejected by the Catholic Church but said her own beliefs and reflection guided her. “I was taught that God is merciful and compassionate, and so must we be. This includes permitting a merciful option to those facing the unimaginable and searching for comfort in their final months in this life,” she wrote.

But the AMA opposes assisted suicide, and it isn’t religious (or conservative). Disability rights activists have been as vociferous in their opposition as the Catholic Church–and they are generally secular in their outlook and liberal in their politics.

So why the fuss among this cadre? They know that people with disabilities are the real targets of this movement, that once assisted suicide becomes normalized, the categories of killable people will expand well beyond the terminally ill.

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