The law enacted Feb. 6 would let people with terminally ill diagnoses of six months or less request drugs to end their lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The proposed rules would require two verbal requests from patients separated by at least 48 hours; a written request with two witnesses; and a final attestation form completed by the patient 48 hours before taking the medication. A five\u2011day waiting period applies to the time between when the prescription is written and when a pharmacy may fill it. Patients would self-administer the life-ending drugs. The death certificate would list the underlying disease or condition as the cause of death.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Hicks described the New York legislation as an \u201cassault on human life, the next step toward a complete throwaway mentality\u201d in a June 2 article in First Things<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen this law becomes effective, a new and frightening era begins in New York,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cHow long before this so-called \u2018compassion\u2019 for the terminally ill evolves from a \u2018choice\u2019 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 Jose Hernandez, a disabilities advocate for the New York Association on Independent Living<\/a>, criticized the law given its negative affect on people with disabilities. He told EWTN News that society already treats many people with disabilities as a \u201cburden.\u201d<\/p>\n For people with disabilities, \u201ceverything is a fight,\u201d said Hernandez, who became a C-5 quadriplegic after a diving accident at 15 years old.<\/p>\n As a New Yorker who grew up in the South Bronx, he voiced concerns that insurance companies would be incentivized to approve the cheaper alternative of assisted suicide.<\/p>\n Hernandez said his perspective is shaped by his own childhood: When he was 8, his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given six months to live \u2014 the same prognosis that would make someone eligible for assisted suicide under New York\u2019s law. She went on to live another 13 years.<\/p>\n When asked what he would say to people considering assisted suicide, Hernandez urged people to consider alternatives such as hospice and palliative care, or even induced comas, to pass with \u201cpeace\u201d into the next life.<\/p>\n Archbishop Hicks encouraged people to consider the witness of Pope Francis when he was dying.<\/p>\n \u201cOur lives are sacred gifts from God that we are to protect and cherish,\u201d Archbishop Hicks wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw the beauty of a natural death exemplified just over a year ago when Pope Francis, clearly weakened by illness and age, traveled through St. Peter\u2019s Square in the popemobile on Easter Sunday, demonstrating the dignity of life even while suffering the afflictions and ailments that would claim his life the very next day,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/josehernandez_rihydq.jpg\"\/)
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