New York voters also overwhelmingly support it. A recent YouGov survey found that 72% back the measure, including 65% of Catholics.
But the bill is a fast-rolling nightmare for the disabled, elderly, and the culture as a whole. Much support for physician-assisted suicide is well-intended. But crossing the bright red line from preserving life to intentionally hastening death has created moral catastrophes in countries that have made the move. New York should heed these examples.
Proceeding down this path would be both a moral and practical failure, violating the sanctity of life and leading to a further erosion in the health and well-being of society’s most vulnerable.
In attachments are the talking points I referred to you in our conversation this morning. I can not stress enough to urge everyone on our side to stay clear away from bringing up religion, moral theology, prolife, and things like that.
The problem is the proposed Bill is a Bad Policy Bill, and the reasons pointed out should be our mantra.
One can be for the concept, but not these bills. (2025 #A136 & #S138).
I will be dropping off to your office , as discussed, our brochure which contains all of the short bullet points.
Most Sincerely,
Dawn C . Eskew1.631.487.7578
By Lisa Blumberg (pictured right) and Not Dead Yet.
The pandemic has made evident the deadly health care disparities that people of color, older people and persons with disabilities have always been subjected to. Any law which enables doctors to write lethal prescriptions at the request of people deemed to have six months or less to live, as this bill would, increases risk for devalued patients.
Despite common misconceptions, uncontrollable pain is not a primary reason that people turn to assisted suicide. Data indicates that people often request lethal prescriptions due to perceived lessening of autonomy, or feelings of being burden. As Cliff Perez, a disability rights activist, states, “these reasons are… existential or disability related and ought to be addressed with quality, multidisciplinary care, not death.” It is not so much how individuals view living with limitations caused by illness or disability, but society’s stigma and failure to provide practical supports to address such limitations.
By Clay Risen, published 11/20/2024, updated 11/22/24
Diane Coleman, a fierce advocate for disability rights who took on Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the right-to-die movement and the U.S. health care system, which she charged was responsible for devaluing the lives of Americans like her with physical and mental impairments, died on Nov. 1 at her home in Rochester, N.Y. She was 71. [Diane pictured right with sign stating "freedom rider"]
Her sister Catherine Morrison said the cause was sepsis.
Ms. Coleman was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a disorder that affected her motor neurons. She was using a wheelchair by 11, and doctors expected her to die before adulthood.
Instead, she blossomed, graduating as valedictorian from her high school and receiving a joint J.D.-M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1981.
It was only after several years of working as a consumer protection lawyer that she shifted her energies to disability rights, joining a flourishing movement that was pushing for anti-discrimination laws at every level of government, including improvements on transit and in buildings.
Ms. Coleman was a member of Adapt, considered one of the most militant disability rights groups. She participated in scores of protests, blocking the entrances to buildings where conferences were held or government offices were housed. She was arrested more than 25 times.