Some states and countries that allow physician assisted suicide also require that a prospective suicide candidate must also suffer from significant pain that cannot be relieved with palliative care, but physical pain is not a requirement under A995c/S2445c.
The Autism Action Network believes that the trends around the world in countries and states that allow physician assisted suicide make A995c/S2445c a great threat to disabled people, especially people impacted by severe developmental disabilities. The threat to disabled people would increase with age as they become less healthy, supporting them becomes more expensive and family members with a vested interest in their loved ones’ survival age and die.
This law would be the first, and most important step, to allow institutions to kill inconvenient people.
TAKE ACTION
Please use the panel to the right to send messages to your State Senator and Assemblymember stating your opposition to A995c/S2445c.
Please call your State Senator and Assemblymember and ask them to oppose A995c/S2445c
You can look up their contact information at the links below:
https://nyassembly.gov/mem/search/
https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator
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TALKING POINTS
Do we really want to permit doctors to assist in killing patients?
Do we as a society want to dispense with the Hippocratic oath requirement that doctors, “First, do no harm?” Do we want to remove the barrier preventing physicians from deliberately assisting or causing the death of patients?
This has happened before, and it did not end well. The Nazi’s first extermination campaign began with doctors and nurses “mercy killing” developmentally disabled children in a program called Aktion T4. Aktion T4 was expanded to include adults with developmental disabilities, and adults and children with physical disabilities. Eventually, 300,000 were killed. This doctor-led program worked out the techniques of mass murder later used at the death camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor.
For once, we actually agree with the American Medical Association who oppose A995A stating in their Code of Medical Ethics, “ “Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks. Instead of engaging in assisted suicide, physicians must aggressively respond to the needs of patients at the end of life.”
TALKING POINTS
How accurate are physicians’ predictions of expected life?
People with “terminal” diseases often live far longer than originally estimated. People unexpectedly recover. Physicians do not have crystal balls.
Legalizing assisted suicide sends the message that suicide is acceptable.
New York State rightly spends millions of dollars each year on preventing suicide. It makes no sense to recognize suicide as a statewide public health concern while simultaneously promoting it as “Death with Dignity” for certain populations.
Assisted suicide creates financial incentives to limit care
Assisted suicide is far less expensive than palliative and supportive care at the end of life. In Oregon, some patients noted that lethal doses of drugs were covered by their insurers while cancer treatments were not. While advocates call assisted suicide a matter of free choice, what kind of choice is it when life is expensive, but death is free?
Assisted suicide discriminates against people with disabilities.
Persons with serious chronic or terminal illnesses often become disabled as their diseases progress. Health professionals and others may incorrectly perceive that those patients have a lower “quality of life” than healthier people do. While the rest of society receives suicide prevention education and services from the state, this bill would direct suicide assistance towards certain disabled individuals. This double standard is a form of discrimination against persons with disabilities.
Suicide as a choice is a coercive form of pressure
Assisted suicide poses a threat to those living with disabilities or who are in vulnerable circumstances. When assisted suicide becomes an option, pressure can be placed on these individuals to take that option. People can feel obligated to choose suicide to avoid being a “burden” which will disproportionately fall on those with fewer resources.
Assisted suicide requires lying on death certificates
The proposal would require doctors to lie on patients’ death certificates by falsely stating that a patient’s death was caused by his or her terminal illness, not by the ingestion of lethal drugs. Therefore, no accurate reporting to state officials would be possible.
This is the beginning of a slide down a slippery slope
Paulin and Hoylman are “progressives.” Progressives wisely understand that you get further over time with multiple little steps to change law and policy rather than trying to make one huge leap. We have seen this strategy used in many policy areas. Progressives are masters at continually moving the goal posts until they end up where they want to be.
Other countries that allow physician assisted suicide, such as Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands, have continually lowered the ages of those who can be killed, and broadened the range of disorders that can trigger assisted suicide.
- The Netherlands allows suicides for non-fatal conditions including autism and psychiatric disorders.
- Canada is scheduled to begin allowing physician assisted suicide for psychiatric disorders and non-lethal disorders in 2027.
- Belgium and the Netherlands allow minors to choose physician assisted suicide.
In Belgium, minors of any age are allowed to request physician assisted suicide. Initially, only minors older than 14 were allowed to be killed, but the age limit was lifted in 2014. Similarly, in the Netherlands, initially only minors 12 and older were allowed to be killed, but the age limit was repealed in 2023 to include children of all ages.
- Canadian Veterans were offered assisted suicide in lieu of services.
Asm. Paulin is simultaneously advocating for physician assisted suicide AND allowing minors to choose ANY medical procedure without parental consent
A995a/S2445a is limited to adults, but Amy Paulin, A995a’s Assembly sponsor, is also the sponsor of A6761, a bill that, if passed, would allow ANY medical procedure to be done to minors without parental consent, which would include physician assisted suicide if A995a is passed. Claims that children will not be allowed to choose physician assisted suicide are disingenuous, and short-term, at best.
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