New York court upholds law protecting people from assisted suicide.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A New York State judge rejected a legal challenge to the state laws that protect people from assisted suicide. The New York Daily News reported that:

state civil judge Joan Kenney said that while she was sympathetic to their plight, their doctors would have to stay on the sidelines. 

Kenney said in her ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court has already found that New York state laws prohibit assisted suicide, and the statutes are not in violation of a patients civil rights. 

“In New York, as in most states, it is a crime to aid another to commit or attempt suicide,” Kenney said in her ruling. “But patients may refuse lifesaving medical treatment.” 

Doctors could face prison time if convicted of aiding a suicide.

The case was based on three people who are seeking to die by assisted suicide in New York.

Judge Kennedy joins three other judges in upholding state assisted suicide laws. In the past few months, a Tennessee Judge upheld the state assisted suicide law, the New Mexico court of appeal and two California judges have upheld laws that protect people from assisted suicide.