EPC - USA focuses on defeating New York assisted suicide bill.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The assisted suicide debate is growing in New York and EPC-USA has been instrumental in holding back the tide. The assisted suicide lobby is becoming more extreme as Assisted suicide lobby members in New York were arrested for disorderly conduct on Tuesday May 21 as they conducted a civil disobedience protest in the New York Assembly. Clearly the assisted suicide lobby is becoming desperate as assisted suicide Bill A995 and S2445 does not have the necessary support to bring it to a vote.

A recent New York Times article by Erin Nolan and Grace Ashford stated that:

Roughly a decade has passed since the first medical aid in dying bill was introduced in Albany, and it has yet to reach the floor for a vote.

But the proposal has gained momentum this year, because of endorsements from groups like the Medical Society of the State of New York, a trade group of roughly 20,000 doctors, and the efforts of activists like Dr. Netherland, who has a Ph.D. in medical sociology and was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer last year.

Colleen Barry in NY

Some of the concerns of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition were acknowledged by Nolan and Ashord:

Opponents worry that some patients might choose to end their lives based on an inaccurate prognosis or after being pressured to do so. And while the current bill is restricted to terminally ill people, they worry that lawmakers could expand eligibility for medical aid in dying after any initial legislation is passed.

“Even if there is just one case of abuse or coercion, or even if there is just one mistake, that is a dead person,” said Colleen Barry, a nurse and board member of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA.

Nolan and Ashford recognize that the American Medical Association opposes assisted suicide and defines it as “​​fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” but the article, which is supportive of assisted suicide, emphasizes that the New York Medical Association has now endorsed the assisted suicide bill.

We knew that the New York assisted suicide lobby was in trouble last December, when Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, who is the sponsor of Assembly Bill A0995 stated on a video (starting at 18:40) that 'they need to get the assisted suicide bill passed first and then amend it later.'

Paulin, who has sponsored the New York assisted suicide bill since 2016, crafted the assisted suicide bill to appear to be tighter than previous bills. She acknowledges that once legalized she will push to have the legislation expanded.

Nearly every state that has legalized assisted suicide have also expanded their legislation.

EPC continues to actively oppose assisted suicide in New York.