They\u2019re rules to literally die from!<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s health department released rules for the state\u2019s controversial new doctor-assisted suicide law<\/a> \u2014 as critics argue it\u2019ll herald a \u201cnew and frightening era\u201d allowing government and corporations to view patients as expendable.<\/p>\n The rules aim to set strict standards for how patients \u201cself-administer\u201d suicide medications, including requiring two verbal requests and mandatory waiting period.<\/p>\n The euthanasia machine invented by Dr. Jack Kevorkian, featuring an IV bag, two large syringes, and tubing connected to a metal box. Sygma via Getty Images<\/p>\n But the rules and the medical euthanasia wider law \u2013 which goes into effect Aug. 5 and likely will be challenged in court \u2013 were condemned by New York Archdiocese Archbishop Ronald Hicks as the expression of a growing \u201cthrowaway culture\u201d that discards life.<\/p>\n \u201cSadly, the idea that all life is precious, deserving of care, protection, and dignity, has slowly disappeared from our culture,\u201d Hicks said in a recent column published in the Catholic Journal<\/a> First Things and a segment on the<\/a> Catholic Faith Network.<\/p>\n The law effectively makes New York a beefed-up version of \u201cDoctor Death\u201d \u2013 the late doctor Jack Kevorkian<\/a>, whose trailblazing efforts to help patients end their own lives made him the wider death with dignity movement\u2019s face during the 1990s.<\/p>\n But whereas Kevorkian skirted the law, New York is now one of 13 states plus the District of Columbia \u2014 nearly all liberal blue jurisdictions \u2014 that officially approved doctor-assisted suicide.<\/p>\n Supporters have branded the law with a euphemism: \u201cMedical Aid in Dying\u201d or MAID.<\/p>\n The law allows terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live to make a voluntary, informed decision to request medication to end their lives via suicide.<\/p>\n Hicks said the law presents a dangerous \u201cslippery slope,\u201d expressing concern it could expand from covering patients with incurable illness to other maladies such as chronic or mental illness or people with disabilities.<\/p>\n Thad Mirer, Dr. Mary Applegate, and Deborah Vogel advocate for the Medical Aid in Dying Act. Albany Times Union via Getty Images<\/p>\n He cited the expansion of the doctor-assisted law in Canada as<\/a> example that the policy could be expanded to cover a huge swath of<\/a> people who are sick but not incurably ill.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the latest assault on human life, the next step toward a complete throwaway mentality,\u201d the Archbishop said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen this law becomes effective, a new and frightening era begins in New York. How long before this so-called compassion\u201d for the terminally ill\u2019 evolves\u2026 into an expectation to kill oneself for all sorts of vulnerable individuals, including those with disabilities, the elderly, and those in impoverished and medically underserved communities?\u201d<\/p>\n