Statement on the State-Sanctioned Suicide Bill (Medical Aid in Dying)

Following is a statement from Robert Bellafiore, spokesman for the NYS Catholic Conference, on the state-sanctioned suicide bill, also known euphemistically as “medical aid in dying”.

The state-sanctioned suicide bill is a classic Pandora’s Box. Once enacted, it cannot be controlled. And the experience in suicide-by-doctor jurisdictions shows this will go in directions New York’s well-meaning lawmakers may not envision but the bill’s lobbyists very much desire.

You can look it up – in the proposed legislation and in the suicide lobby’s own words and actions.

Doctors would be forced to lie on death certificates. That’s normally a felony. And it makes the program incredibly difficult to evaluate honestly or regulate for compliance with the law.

It creates a cottage industry of little Jack Kervorkians handing out meds whose only purpose is to kill the patient.

It runs smack into Governor Hochul’s very successful suicide prevention efforts, which are embedded throughout schools, pediatrician practices, hospitals, veterans and first responder initiatives, the 988 crisis hotline, and many other state and local programs.

It tells young people, who everyone knows are in the midst of an unprecedented mental health crisis, that life is disposable and that it’s OK to end your life if you see no hope.

It turns medicine on its head from a healing profession into a killing one, which is why the AMA calls it “fundamentally incompatible” with good medicine.

Its so-called safeguards are made of straw. The record shows that the same people pushing this will want it expanded beyond terminal illnesses. And they’ll go to court to do it.

This bill doesn’t even require doctors to ask people if they’ve contemplated suicide before or find out if they’ve ever been treated for depression, paranoia, dementia, anxiety, anorexia or any other mental health condition.

Nowhere does the bill say a medical consultation must be in person, meaning it could happen by Zoom. Really?

The “mental competency” language is a fig leaf. In Oregon – the model for New York’s suicide lobby – only six of the 1167 suicide prescriptions (0.5 percent) written in 2023 and 2024 were referred for psychiatric evaluations.

The prescribing doctor doesn’t even have to be the patient’s regular provider. The national group “Death with Dignity” tells patients they could “ask any doctor … even your dermatologist” to write a suicide prescription. Dermatologist?

It’s time to let this bill die a natural death. New York State should instead strengthen palliative care, improve health care services and counseling for people in crisis and show America what real compassion looks like.