Call Kathy Hochul and Tell Her to Keep Assisted Suicide Out of New York

I am writing to you with a heavy heart.  On Monday night, the New York State Senate passed the highly controversial and much-warned against assisted suicide bill (A136 Paulin/S138 Hoylman-Sigal).  We are now one step away from legalized assisted suicide in New York, and you have one last chance to make your voice heard.

Please call Gov. Kathy Hochul now at 518-474-8390 and tell her to protect vulnerable New Yorkers and to VETO NY’s assisted suicide bill which is so extreme it does not even contain a waiting period! You can also contact her here: https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form

Notably, Gov. Hochul has been rather tight-lipped on assisted suicide.

Your voice could make the difference!

Sen. Steven Rhoads made the case perfectly when he said, “We’ve spoken a lot about slippery slopes. This bill, unfortunately, is poorly drafted. It leaves so many questions that go unanswered, and while we’re asked to have the confidence that regulations are going to fill in the blank, in a case where you’re literally talking about the difference between life and death, this legislature has the responsibility, before we unleash a powerful weapon into the hands of someone, to ensure that there are sufficient guidelines, safeguards, to make sure that this process is not being abused.”

During debate, Sen. Rhoads and others highlighted some of the most glaring holes in the so-called “safeguards” in the legislation including the lack of requirement for a mental health evaluation for all potential victims of assisted suicide and the bill’s failure to ensure that abuse under the legislation could be prevented and tracked.

Sen. James Tedisco pointed out that individuals dying by assisted suicide would not even be given the compassion that was afforded to vicious murderers on death row before New York eliminated the death penalty.

Sen. Bill Weber said the following:

“Under this bill, a terminally ill patient could take their own life with prescribed lethal medication, but unless that patient chooses to notify their family beforehand, their loved ones may never know how or even why that life was ended. Was it a suicide pill, an accidental overdose, or something more sinister? This legislation offers no clear path for family involvement, no mandate for disclosure, no mandated wait period, and no guaranteed autopsy, and for many families, especially those whose faith prohibit autopsies after death, that is not just a bureaucratic oversight. It’s a religious violation.

“My questions are not just hypothetical. We’ve seen the consequences of institutional decisions made without regard for our citizens. During the COVID-19 pandemic, how many of our elderly died alone, isolated in hospitals, unable to hold the hand of a loved one, even to make a final phone call? Have we forgotten that already? Did the state not already preside over the lonely, silent deaths of thousands of seniors and those with chronic illnesses, and now with this bill, we may be repeating the same mistake, not from the fear of spreading COVID, but in the name of freedom, without sufficient safeguards, without witnesses, and too often, without love.

“We are told this is a choice, but what kind of choice is it when the system makes it even easier or even encourages people to die rather than to live with dignity? Who is this assisted suicide bill really helping and who is it quietly abandoning? I’ll tell you; it’s abandoning the vulnerable, our seniors, those living with disabilities, and those in their darkest moments.”

It is astonishing that any senator could vote for this bill given the inability of the bill’s sponsor to offer any assurance of serious protections in his bill.  Perhaps most notable was the decision by Sen. Patricia Fahy, the chair of the Senate Disability Committee, to vote in favor of this bill despite her own admission that she is “troubled” by “the concerns of the disabled.” One would think that being troubled by the concerns of the very group she is supposed to be advocating for would cause her to stand against it until those concerns were dealt with.

Up until now, Gov. Hochul has been a steady suicide prevention advocate. But if she signs this bill, she will be seriously undermining her own legacy of suicide prevention.

Please call Gov. Kathy Hochul now at 518-474-8390 or contact her here, https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form  and tell her to continue her legacy of suicide prevention and to VETO assisted suicide!

LifeNews Note: Ann LeBlanc is the chair of the board of directors of the New York State Right to Life Committee.

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