New York has become a national leader in facilitating death.
Abortion
In November 2024, voters in the state approved Proposition One, the “New York Equal Protection of Law Amendment,” an amendment to the New York State Constitution that protects the right of a pregnant mother to end the life her baby through abortion. Before 24 weeks, in New York, a mother can end her baby’s life for any reason.
After 24 weeks, and up until birth, a mother can end her baby’s life for any physical or mental health reason. Since clinicians assess the situations individually, it is unknown what types of mental health reasons would qualify. According to U.S. News & World Report, New York State performed more abortions between January 2023 and August 2024 than any other state except California. The total number aborted was 207,420. As of January 2023, half of the abortion patients had incomes below the federal poverty threshold and black women, who make up 14% of the population of all women between 15–44, made up 28% of the abortion patients. Race and income are predominant factors contributing to a woman’s decision to abort her baby.
Assisted Suicide
After having enshrined abortion rights in the state, Kathy Hochul and her cohorts in the legislature turned their sights on people with serious illnesses.
Last month, New York became the 13th state in the nation that permits physician assisted suicide for terminally ill competent adult patients expected to die within six months. The law is ambiguously known as the “Medical Aid in Dying Act,” which allows doctors to prepare a lethal prescription to administer to those who meet the requisite qualifications. The more accurate term to describe the law is physician assisted suicide. To qualify for the benefit, a person must be an adult with mental capacity and have a prognosis of six months or less to live.
Many states and countries already have legalized physician assisted suicide. New York is part of a growing number of blue states which is jumping on the band wagon. Although the law is pitched as accessing “death with dignity,” there may be other intended benefits. The cost savings to hospitals by having beds cleared sooner, especially if occupied by Medicaid recipients, will be a boon.
Other benefits exist as well, such as for people on organ transplant waiting lists. Organ donation after euthanasia is legal in Canada and Spain. The Netherlands has expanded its eligibility list to now include children and dementia patients. Oregon has increased the array of qualifying conditions for hastened death to include non-terminal illnesses like arthritis, hernia and kidney failure. The trend is that places with physician assisted suicide laws invariably expand them, resulting in a greater number of intentional deaths every year.
However, not everyone agrees with the law. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik described the Medical Aid in Dying Act when it was proposed as “a shameful attack on the sanctity of life and a betrayal of our most vulnerable citizens.” She called the legislation “radical” and “driven by Governor Hochul’s Far Left allies.” The American Medical Association is also opposed to physicians consciously participating in the demise of their patients. The fundamentals of practicing medicine are based on the Hippocratic Oath, which is that doctors should be healers and first do no harm. Nothing is more harmful than causing a patient’s death. Even if the patient claims to want death, it still appears to be fundamentally incompatible with a healer’s role.
Governor Hochul, who refers to herself as a “devout” Catholic, thinks that if a New Yorker chooses assisted suicide who is she to stand in their way. The United States Supreme Court left the issue for the states to regulate. There is no federal substantive due process right to either an abortion or physician assisted suicide.
Jewish medical ethics view actively intervening to shorten a life as murder (in almost all cases). It always has and always will be viewed as murder except for very rare exceptions not applicable here. Public opinion will not change the fact, which is not the case in a secular society. The Medical Aid in Dying Act has broad public support.
It will come as no shock that once people in New York begin using the new law that the safeguards meant to ensure that hospital personnel, desperate to clear beds, and family members, burdened by a seriously ill relative, will erode over time. The “guardrails” touted by Governor Hochul include a mandatory waiting period of five days between when the deadly prescription is written and filled; the oral request to die by the patient must be recorded; there must be a mental health evaluation of the patient by a psychiatrist or psychologist; and any family member who stands to gain financially from the patient’s death is ineligible to be witness to the patient’s oral request to die. The law is effective six months after Governor Hochul signed the bill into law. The deadly prescription will be filled at certain pharmacies in New York and then given to the patient to mix for ingestion with a liquid like apple juice. Alternatively, the medication can be administered through a feeding tube.
It will be interesting to see if, like abortions, low-income New Yorkers and racial minorities are most affected. We can only hope that Governor Hochul has established proper data collection criteria and will publish the results.
Attorney Kathryn Donnelly
is co-founder of the new Kew Forest Republican Club
By Kathryn Donnelly