New Yorkers struggling with mental health crises are told to call 988, the suicide-prevention hotline. But on February 6, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act into law, authorizing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. The message is stark: some lives must be saved, others may be ended.
Before Governor Hochul penned her signature last Friday, advocates for PAS were sure to be shoving pro-suicide talking points down Governor Hochul’s throat: the PAS lobby claims that PAS is “compassionate,” promotes “autonomy” and “choice,” and offers “death with dignity” to the terminally ill.
These claims could not be further from the truth. To begin, the PAS lobby’s “Death with Dignity” moniker is dishonest. Suicide is cheaper than quality end-of-life care options like hospice, in-home care, and diligent pain management — in crude economic terms, a dead patient frees up a hospital bed, saves morphine, and cuts slack to insurance companies. When assisted suicide is the norm and hospice care is an exception, death loses dignity and gains a dangerous price tag.
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