New York Bill S6140 would prohibit funding assisted suicide

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

While New York has companion Bills A4321 and S6471 to legalize assisted suicide and New York has Bill A198, to study assisted suicide, New York also has Bill S6140 to prohibit funding assisted suicide.

Bill S6140 is sponsored by New York State Senator Phil Boyle. The bill is known as:

AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to prohibiting insurance coverage for physician assisted suicide.

To keep it simple, S6140 prohibits state funding for assisted suicide, prohibits any policy of group or blanket accident and health insurance coverage, and prohibits any funding for medical expense indemnity corporation, hospital service corporation or health service corporation for assisted suicide.

Senator Boyle defines physician-assisted suicide and aid-in-dying prescription drugs as:

For purposes of this subsection "physician-assisted suicide" shall mean voluntary termination of one's own life by administration of a lethal substance with the direct or indirect assistance of a physician and "aid-in-dying prescription drug" shall mean a drug determined and prescribed by a physician which an individual may choose to self-administer to bring about his or her death.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition urges the New York State Legislature to reject assisted suicide, nonetheless, Bill S6140 does not imply that assisted suicide will become legal but rather that it should not be funded by the state government or by any form of insurance.