Disability patients sue New York to stop doctor-assisted suicide law
A coalition advocating for patients with disabilities filed federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to overturn New York and Illinois’ assisted suicide laws, arguing they treat the terminally ill as “disposable.”
New York’s Health Department recently released regulations for the law, which takes effect Aug. 5. It allows terminally ill patients with less than six months to live to voluntarily request medication to end their lives through doctor-assisted suicide.
The lawsuits argue both states’ laws discriminate against people with disabilities by directing them toward lethal prescriptions instead of equal access to care, support, and suicide prevention services available to other patients. Plaintiffs say this violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as equal protection and due process rights under the 14th Amendment.
“When states legalize assisted suicide while simultaneously cutting home care and community-based services, they send a dangerous message: that death is a solution for disability and lack of support,” said Sharon Shapiro of the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, a plaintiff in the case. “This is not ‘choice,’ it’s discrimination.”
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, the case names Gov. Kathy Hochul, Health Commissioner James McDonald, the State Board of Medicine and its chair Amit Shelat, and Mental Health Commissioner Anni Marie Sullivan as defendants.
Matt Vallière of the Institute for Patients’ Rights said the laws “create a separate and unequal system” offering death instead of support. New York Archdiocese Archbishop Ronald Hicks also condemned the law as part of a “throwaway” culture.
Hochul defended the law, approved Feb. 6, citing bodily autonomy and dignity after watching her mother suffer from ALS. The Health Department said it is working on regulations, while the attorney general’s office declined comment. The coalition has filed similar suits in California, Colorado, and Delaware.
Mr. M – It’s no wonder that in liberal, leftist states that let criminals walk free in the name of “justice,” the law encourages people to die in the name of “dignity” and “care.”
