ew York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in an op-ed last week that she will sign a bill legalizing medical assisted suicide for adults with a terminal illness.
Hochul says she is passing the Medical Aid in Dying Act due to the “genuine and deeply held belief that government must respect the rights and will of the people it serves.” To qualify, an adult must be “mentally competent” and have a “prognosis of six months or less to live,” the bill states.
The bill also makes it clear that anyone who makes the request for medical assisted suicide must not be considered “suicidal” and taking medication to intentionally end one’s life should not be considered a “suicide.”
This move lets New York join the club of 12 states and the District of Columbia that preach suicide as a form of “medical aid in dying.”
Although the act will allow “individual doctors and religiously affiliated health facilities” to decline offering suicide as a form of treatment to those who are suicidal, doctors must “promptly” transfer requesting clients to a health care provider who is “willing to permit the prescribing, dispensing, ordering or self-administering” of suicide medication.
“I heard stories of a parent or spouse pleading for an end to the suffering,” Hochul, whose own mom died from ALS, writes. “I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and feeling powerless to stop it.”
I have never had any form of terminal illness, but I watched my mom fight cancer for five years and die. It’s no easy thing to watch and I can conclude it’s even harder to fight. Yet, that doesn’t mean we should let our government allow the terminally ill to kill themselves as a form of so-called “healthcare.”
Hellbound and Down 