Hochul’s ‘Death With Dignity’ Is Neither

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. Physician-assisted ...
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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.

Physician-assisted suicide (PAS), known euphemistically to advocates as Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) or “Death with Dignity,” describes a practice where patients self-administer a lethal dose of drugs under the direction of a physician. The practice is legal in thirteen states and Washington, D.C.

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.

Further, PAS is anything but “compassionate.” In the Netherlands, where euthanasia is available on demand, senior citizens “are so fearful of being killed by doctors that they carry cards saying they do not want euthanasia.” In Canada, minors may seek PAS for any reason without notifying their parents. The Canadian government also offers PAS to people “too poor to live with dignity.”

While the United States, unlike Canada and Europe, has demonstrated a commitment to limiting PAS to terminal patients, concerns about a “slippery slope” are not unfounded — empirical and anecdotal evidence suggest PAS is already slipping into disrepair in the United States. In Colorado, over five hundred anorexic women were prescribed suicide drugs under the direction of a doctor who classifies anorexia as “terminal.”

As far as the “autonomy” argument goes, PAS advocates misunderstand the power of a doctor’s white coat. While patient autonomy exists as a core medical ethic to stress the importance of informed consent and non-coercion, no patient, especially a vulnerable one, is truly “autonomous” as the word connotes.

With the smoker developing lung cancer, a doctor must leverage his expertise to motivate him to quit smoking, and with the woman exhibiting symptoms of cholecystitis, a physician should tell her that her gallbladder must be removed. In every exam room, doctors have a unique professional mandate to suggest or inform lifestyle changes, surgical or medical — but suggesting and prescribing physician-assisted suicide crosses a critical red line.

Suggesting suicide is an abuse of a doctor’s oath: “I will do no harm.” To a vulnerable patient facing a devastating terminal diagnosis, a doctor’s word on suicide is suggestive and coercive.

Top to bottom, physician-assisted suicide violates patient trust and physician integrity, offends the innate dignity and equality of all human beings regardless of their physical or mental state, normalizes suicide, disincentivizes public and private investment in palliative care options, and gives rise to a slippery slope where suicide drugs may become available to the general public.

Real death with dignity is 1) embracing human life until its natural end, 2) diligent pain management in terminal patients’ final days or hours, 3) ensuring every suffering person of their inherent worth and dignity despite a terminal diagnosis, and 4) innovations in high-quality palliative care, hospice, and in-home care.

Suicide is not the ethical or medical answer to fear, pain, or suffering at the end of life. A physician’s responsibility is to diligently address a dying patient’s fears, affirm the value of their life until its natural end, and assure the patient that their symptoms and pain will be vigilantly treated.

Physician-assisted suicide is not “death with dignity.” It is cruelty to the terminally ill, disrespect and disregard for the elderly, and convenience for financial stakeholders in the medical industry.

New York has now joined 12 states in breaking the historic commitments of the Hippocratic Oath, where doctors promise, “I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan.” Governor Hochul: suicide is not dignified.

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Hannah Lape is Legislative Strategist for the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, dedicated to promoting Biblical values and Constitutional principles in public policy.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.