New York is one step closer to becoming the 12th state to legalize “assisted suicide” after the state Senate approved legislation that would allow people facing terminal diagnoses to end their lives.
The Medical Aid in Dying Act, which passed the Assembly earlier this year, now heads to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk.
As the New York Post explains, the Empire State’s version of an “assisted suicide” bill is by far the most radical.
All 11 other states (Delaware became No. 11 last month) require a waiting period before you get your suicide-meds prescription filled; it’s 15 days in Oregon but could be less than 24 hours in New York.
The Empire State bill also has no real mechanism for tracking how many deaths it brings: Some commissioner is supposed to review a “sample” of patient medical records and produce a yearly report to the Legislature on how it’s going; that’s it.
Beyond the details, this is fundamentally about a reinvention of the medical profession: Out goes “do no harm,” in comes a “calculation” as to whether a given life is still worth living.
With the state, and insurance companies, having a clear financial interest in ending “marginal” lives and those whose care costs “too much.”
Anyone who wants to die can, in fact, find a way: This is purely about giving “assisted suicide” the moral force of law, a big first step on the way to euthanasia for those with chronic conditions — even Alzheimer’s. (New York Post)
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) blasted Hochul’s silence on the legislation after her office simply said the Democrat will review it.
Again and again, her policies destroy hope for those in need — and yet she stands mute and inept as her party peddles a bill that whispers “Give up” to a depressed veteran, tells a grandmother with cancer “You’re a burden” and screams to a disabled New Yorker, “Your life isn’t worth saving.”
It’s anti-human, it’s anti-American, and it’s a betrayal of the values that bind us as New Yorkers.
Hochul’s silence here speaks volumes, and it isn’t indecision but complicity, trading vulnerable lives for political points with her far-left Democrat base.
Stefanik called on Hochul to expand access to palliative care in the state, which she argues would give those suffering "dignity and love."
"New York needs real leadership — robust palliative-care programs, accessible mental-health services and dignified support for the disabled — not a state-encouraged push toward the grave," she said.
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