New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act is scheduled to go into effect Aug. 5
NEW YORK — Protesters representing End Assisted Suicide participated in a June 11 demonstration with a message that assisted suicide is inherently discriminatory against the rights of people with disabilities.
All had the same concern: that New York state’s Medical Aid in Dying Act — scheduled to go into effect Aug. 5 — will, as their June 11 lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York reads, “allow providers to prescribe drugs — not to alleviate pain or suffering — but to cause the death of the patient and intentionally facilitate suicide.”
The MAID legislation, which makes New York the 13th U.S. state along with the District of Columbia to authorize physician-assisted suicide, was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Feb. 6.
“Gov. Hochul addressed several of our concerns by requiring them to amend it in exchange for her signature,” Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said.
The amendments mandate a 5-day waiting period, a mental health evaluation and an initial physician evaluation done in person. The MAID request must be recorded as video or audio, and anyone who may benefit financially from the patient’s death is barred from acting as a witness or interpreter for the request. MAID requests are also limited to New York residents.
“One of those things is also increased religious liberty protection for our facilities,” Poust said. “There was always protection for inpatient healthcare facilities — but it was broadened to include affiliated agencies, such as home care institutions affiliated with Catholic hospitals, hospice programs and things of that nature. So we have pretty good religious liberty protection now — but it will certainly be tested, and we’ll have to be very on guard to ensure that holds up.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is explicit in its opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide. Regarding suicide, the Church teaches that human beings are “stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of,” and for that reason suicide, or voluntary cooperation in it, is contrary to the love of God and moral law. The Church also states, “Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.”
