\t\t\t\t10<\/p>\n
(OSV News) \u2014\u00a0The bright orange and white signs told the story of the protesters holding them outside the United Nations: \u201cWe deserve care \u2014 not suicide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSuicide is not medical treatment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFund services \u2014 not suicide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAssisted suicide is dangerous and discriminatory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some stood, while others sat in wheelchairs during that June 11 protest. They represented End Assisted Suicide<\/a>, a coalition of patient advocacy groups that maintain assisted suicide is inherently discriminatory against the rights of people with disabilities.<\/p>\n All had the same concern: that New York state\u2019s Medical Aid in Dying Act<\/a> \u2014 scheduled to go into effect Aug. 5 \u2014 will, as their June 11 lawsuit<\/a> in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York reads, \u201callow providers to prescribe drugs \u2014 not to alleviate pain or suffering \u2014 but to cause the death of the patient and intentionally facilitate suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n Passage in New York<\/p>\n The MAID legislation itself, which makes New York the 13th U.S. state along with the District of Columbia to authorize physician-assisted suicide, was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul Feb. 6.<\/p>\n Hochul, a Catholic and graduate of The Catholic University of America\u2019s law school, said in an official statement her personal family experience impacted her decision.<\/p>\n \u201cWitnessing my mother\u2019s suffering from ALS was an excruciating experience, knowing there was nothing I could do to alleviate the pain of someone I loved,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur state will always stand firm in safeguarding New Yorkers\u2019 freedoms and right to bodily autonomy, which includes the right for the terminally ill to peacefully and comfortably end their lives with dignity and compassion,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n The governor did not, however, sign the legislation without some amendments.<\/p>\n \u201cGov. Hochul addressed several of our concerns by requiring them to amend it in exchange for her signature,\u201d Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, told OSV News.<\/p>\n The amendments mandate a 5-day waiting period, a mental health evaluation and an initial physician evaluation done in person. The MAID request must be recorded as video or audio, and anyone who may benefit financially from the patient\u2019s death is barred from acting as a witness or interpreter for the request. MAID requests are also limited to New York residents.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of those things is also increased religious liberty protection for our facilities,\u201d Poust said. \u201cThere was always protection for inpatient healthcare facilities \u2014 but it was broadened to include affiliated agencies, such as home care institutions affiliated with Catholic hospitals,\u00a0 hospice programs, and things of that nature. So we have pretty good religious liberty protection now \u2014 but it will certainly be tested, and we\u2019ll have to be very on guard to ensure that holds up.\u201d<\/p>\n Poust, whose conference offers \u201cNow and at the Hour of Our Death,\u201d a downloadable<\/a> Catholic guide to end-of-life decision-making, noted Hochul\u2019s concerns were shared by other politicians.<\/p>\n One Democratic member of the state assembly who voted against the bill, he said, \u201ctold me her mother, who lives in Canada, was offered assisted suicide in the hospital for a non-terminal illness. \u2026 They said, \u2018Well, we could offer you MAID.\u2019 That opened her eyes, as an assembly member, to say, \u2018Whoa, wait a minute here.\u2019 So she was a no vote.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking to Canada<\/p>\n As to what passage of the legislation portends, \u201cI think rather than look at the experience of other states for what we could expect, we all need to start looking at Canada \u2014 our immediate neighbor to the north,\u201d suggested Poust.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCanada did this nationally \u2014 as opposed to the U.S. which is going state by state, because that\u2019s how our system works,\u201d he said. \u201cBut now that we\u2019re starting to get to a critical mass of states that have passed this \u2014 including the biggest ones, California; New York; Illinois \u2014 we\u2019re going to start seeing advocates push for expansions, like they did in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n Poust said he expected legislation to expand MAID to those with chronic illnesses or even mental illness. He pointed to Canada\u2019s expanding MAID<\/a> law, which will permit people with mental illness to request MAID unless Parliament acts before March 17, 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s my biggest concern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Catechism of the Catholic Church is explicit in its opposition<\/a> to euthanasia or assisted suicide as MAID. Regarding suicide, the Church teaches that human beings are \u201cstewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of,\u201d and for that reason suicide, or voluntary cooperation in it, is contrary to the love of God and the moral law. The Church also states, \u201cWhatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n Concerns for the vulnerable<\/p>\n Matt Valli\u00e8re, executive director of Patients Rights Action Fund<\/a> and the Institute for Patients\u2019 Rights<\/a>, said the impact of New York\u2019s law has yet to be felt.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to watch and wait. Who knows who will be hurt by this,\u201d he told OSV News. \u201cBut as with other states, as they implement the law, you will see vulnerable people being harmed by this: whether it\u2019s through the discrimination of being offered assistance (in) suicide \u2026 or not receiving equal suicide prevention care and services, based on people\u2019s disability status.\u201d<\/p>\n End Assisted Suicide has filed lawsuits in California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, and New York, with the aim of those cases eventually being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThese laws never get more careful,\u201d Valli\u00e8re said. \u201cThey never get tighter; they always expand. The ways they expand are by making it faster and easier to get, and they include additional subsets of people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocate Ebony Payne \u2014 in a statement provided to OSV News about why she joined the lawsuit against Illinois as an individual plaintiff \u2014 said, \u201cThe risks faced by people living with disabilities are tough enough. We don\u2019t need to add one more in the form of assisted suicide \u2014 all in the claimed name of compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n Valli\u00e8re noted a paradox at work.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a medical setting \u2014 if somebody were to express a desire to kill themselves \u2014 in every other instance, they are going to get the full benefit of the state\u2019s suicide prevention programs,\u201d he explained. \u201cUnless and except if that person happens to have a life-threatening disability. Those people may or may not get suicide prevention \u2014 but they can and they will get suicide help.\u201d<\/p>\n Situation in California<\/p>\n