New York Suicide Bill: Governor Hochul, Don’t Do It. Honor the Memory of Pope Francis with a Veto

We may have the bond of being baptized Catholic New York women with “K” in our somewhat similar names, but I don’t think Kathy Hochul would like me. I’d like New Yorkers to be so kind to women that no mother would ever feel like she would have to have an abortion. She’d like the Statue of Liberty to welcome women from all over to have their abortions here.

Right now she’s faced with a choice about what to do with the assisted-suicide legislation that just passed in the statehouse. It’s dangerous. It’s unnecessary. Even members who voted for it registered reservations. And with good reason.

Here’s how the Wall Street Journal puts it:

New York’s proposal is for “mentally competent” adults who have been given prognoses of six months or less to live. This sounds compassionate, but around the world it has proved to be a slippery slope. In Canada the “medical assistance in dying” program has become at least the fifth-leading cause of death since 2015. The law has shed its original safeguards and in 2027 will be available to those with mental illness alone. It already is in parts of Europe.

Oregon mandates a 15-day waiting period between a patient’s first and second dying requests. New York’s requires no delay, meaning a patient could receive a diagnosis one day and have a lethal cocktail the next if two physicians approve. Doctors needn’t refer applicants for mental-health evaluations if they believe patients have the “decision-making capacity” to make an “informed decision.” This standard means there will soon be go-to suicide doctors. . . .

When death is an option, the state is signaling that it is justifiable and perhaps desirable. Some 47% of Oregonians who have pursued “death with dignity” listed fear of being a burden as a motivation. Patients in Colorado and Maine have opted to die because of eating disorders and high blood pressure, respectively.

Our beloved Maddy Kearns wrote this in the Free Press, via a real pro-life hero, Richard Doerflinger:

Richard Doerflinger is a bioethicist in Washington State who has been tracking assisted suicide laws for nearly 40 years. In his estimation, the New York bill may be the worst law of its kind in the United States.

“There is no waiting period in the New York bill. That’s the first time I’ve seen this,” he said, noting that most states with MAID laws have a minimum waiting period. In Oregon, it is 15 days, though a 2023 law allows this to be waived when the patient is expected to die before the waiting period ends.

In New York, any patient could decide “in a moment of despair at first getting his or her diagnosis, ‘Oh my God, I just want to die,’ and sign off, and that’s the end of the process,” Doerflinger said. The patient could request the prescription, have it approved, and be dead within 24 hours.

In Oregon and other states, doctors are responsible for recommending a mental health evaluation if they suspect the patient suffers from “a psychological condition or depression causing impaired judgment.” Meanwhile, New York would require doctors to assess the patient’s “decision making capacity” and ability to make an “informed decision,” and refer the patient for a mental health evaluation only if they suspect he or she lacks these due to a “psychiatric or psychological disorder.” Doerflinger interprets this to mean that, under New York’s bill, “the mental health evaluation is only ordered by the physician if it looks like the psychological condition interferes with the patient’s ability to make a decision or take in information at all.”

But even in states with more explicit guidelines for mental health evaluations, the safeguard is not infallible. For instance, in Oregon, a man with a long history of depression and suicide attempts was given a lethal prescription (which he did not take) after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. In Colorado, young women have been given lethal prescriptions as a treatment for anorexia.

I’m obsessed with the fact that my computer is constantly giving me a suicide hotline number because I keep searching for items related to suicide — but it doesn’t seem to register that it’s the suicide of the progressive elites imposed on us.

It’s of course more than that. People don’t want to see others suffer — especially loved ones. But don’t you want medical protocols that treat patients, not kill them?

Pope Francis met with the vice president of the United States and worked the St. Peter’s Square Easter crowds during his last day of his life on earth. He had been suffering for quite awhile, but he was consistent as he lived his final years and months and weeks and days with what he had talked about when it came to the elderly.

He loved to talk about how necessary grandparents are. He was a bit of that in the world — a grandfatherly figure. Suffering, yes, but still with value and something to offer about life and love and being a pilgrim in the world. During those final days, he went through the door pilgrims do for the Jubilee of Hope that is ongoing in the Church. It was an act of hope — that life is a gift and worth living until the time God calls you home.

Kathy Hochul has expressed her love for Pope Francis. Listen to him, Governor Hochul. Please. Honor his life and legacy of following Jesus.

It’s safe to say Pope Francis would oppose the Medical Aid in Dying legislation. He opposed assisted suicide.

Loving your neighbor is what the Gospel mandates, and poisoning our medical system with this dehumanization of patients in certain circumstances where they have become inconvenient is suicidal.