Ahead of New York\u2019s assisted suicide law taking effect, Jamie Towey, president of Aging with Dignity, said the initial legislation \u201cwas easily the most dangerous bill ever written on assisted suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aging with Dignity, a nonprofit organization, defends the rights of all people as they approach the end of life.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 5, New York will become the 13th state in the country, along with the District of Columbia, to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the legislation (S.138\/A.136)<\/a> into law on Feb. 6, 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cWe shouldn\u02bct be offering the false solution of suicide. Suicide is not a real medical treatment. It is not a solution to suffering,\u201d Towey said in an interview with Catherine Hadro of EWTN News In Depth.<\/p>\n When New York\u2019s Legislature passed its assisted suicide bill, \u201cit didn\u02bct include any waiting periods out of the gate,\u201d which are intended \u201cto protect against rash decision-making,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n There also \u201cwasn\u02bct a residential requirement,\u201d he said. So people \u201ccould come from any state in the country and get assisted suicide in New York without any waiting period.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow, the law, as it was signed by Gov. Hochul, included certain stipulations for those. But I can promise you that this is just the beginning because they\u02bcre going to come back. They always do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Aging With Dignity<\/p>\n Founded in 1996 by Jim Towey, legal counsel and close adviser to St. Teresa of Calcutta, also known as Mother Teresa, the Aging With Dignity organization \u201cwas informed almost entirely by his experiences working with Mother Teresa of Calcutta for the last 12 years of her life,\u201d said Jamie Towey, son of Jim Towey.<\/p>\n For Mother Teresa, \u201cdying was more than a medical moment. It was an emotional and a spiritual moment where people weren\u02bct just there to have their pain managed or their checklist of symptoms addressed \u2026 They needed to be accompanied,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey needed, in Mother\u02bcs words, to love and to be loved. And so when dad founded Aging With Dignity, he wanted to take Mother\u02bcs example and bring that to the United States and give people the right to have that opportunity to age with dignity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Today, the organization continues its mission through numerous programs, including its Assisted Suicide Watch<\/a>. The program tracks the data and researches the consequences that follow when physician-assisted suicide becomes law.<\/p>\n Its research has found that the situation is \u201ca mess,\u201d Jamie Towey said. \u201cWe were promised that this would be transparent,\u201d but “in reality we have very poor insights into what\u02bcs happening with the data.\u201d<\/p>\n New Mexico and Montana have \u201cnever submitted an annual report on assisted suicide data,\u201d he said. \u201cOur nation\u02bcs capital of Washington, D.C., hasn\u02bct submitted one in years.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington state<\/a> has lifted some of its reporting requirements, Hawaii\u2019s health department<\/a> has recommended repealing portions of its reporting rules, and Vermont<\/a> releases its data biennially.<\/p>\n There are also \u201ctremendously conflicting reporting standards across the states,\u201d because \u201cone state will report who died from the drugs, one state will report just how many people were prescribed the drugs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut for the data that we do have, you see some very concerning things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Even though \u201cevery law has a requirement for psychiatric evaluations, \u201conly one out of the 13 where this is legal tracks psychiatric evaluations, and that\u02bcs Oregon,\u201d he said. \u201cLast year, between four and 500 people were prescribed these drugs in Oregon. Two were referred for psychiatric evaluations.\u201d<\/p>\n Some studies show \u201cas high as 20% of people with a terminal cancer diagnosis suffer from severe depression,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the symptoms of severe depression is suicidal ideation. So this is a population that is very exposed to suicide. And Oregon is doing nothing to screen for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Fueled By \u2018Culture of Death\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cTo take a step back and put yourself in the shoes of someone who has a terminal diagnosis or who\u02bcs just living in a nursing home \u2026 and is aging alone,\u201d Towey said. \u201cMaybe they don\u02bct have good access to pain control\u201d or \u201cthey don\u02bct have good access to care.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you put yourself in those shoes, you can understand the impulse of wanting to just escape somehow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, those desires are playing out in a culture of death. And we have organizations like Compassion and Choices, which are $20 million a year organizations, tens of millions in assets, that have been behind this push in every single state where it\u02bcs been legalized. And so they\u02bcre moving in on the vulnerable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n To people who feel this way, Towey\u2019s message is to remember that \u201cyour life has meaning, and it\u02bcs hard, and that suffering is real and that you deserve accompaniment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou deserve to be shepherded through this. You deserve a real person. You deserve access to care. And if you\u02bcre not getting those, that\u02bcs an indictment on our healthcare system, and that\u02bcs what we ought to fix,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n You deserve to be shepherded through this. You deserve a real person. You deserve access to care. And if you\u2019re not getting those, that\u2019s an indictment on our healthcare system, and that\u2019s what we ought to fix.\u201d Jamie Towey, president of Aging With Dignity<\/p>\n To combat the culture of death, the organization offers its Five Wishes legal document, which is an advanced care planning program so people can establish their wishes for care ahead of a serious illness.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery patient has the right to determine the kind of care that he or she wants. That\u02bcs guaranteed in federal law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n