An analysis of the NY Governor’s assisted suicide op-ed

Last week, the Governor of Illinois signed assisted suicide into law.

This week, the Governor of New York announced that she will do the same.

She also wrote an op-ed that shows a tragic distortion of moral reasoning.

First, Gov. Kathy Hochul begins by saying: “Our founding fathers established a vision of a country based on limited government and broad individual rights that together protect rights of speech, worship, privacy and bodily autonomy.”

Of course, what the US Declaration of Independence actually says is that men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life [… and] that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men.”

After substituting “Life” for “bodily autonomy”, Gov. Hochul announces her support for legalizing assisted suicide “to speed up the inevitable.”

Next, Gov. Hochul shares about how watching her mother’s experience with ALS affected her, saying: “I watched that vicious disease steal away the strong woman who raised me as it took her ability to walk, to eat, to speak and, ultimately, to live.”

While it is certainly painful to accompany someone as they suffer an illness, that’s still part of life. To suggest that “those people” suffering, even terminally, are not really living is dehumanizing.

Next, Gov. Hochul makes a stark moral inversion by insinuating that not allowing someone to kill themselves is actually what violates the sanctity of life. She writes:

At the same time, there are individuals of many faiths who believe that deliberately shortening one’s life violates the sanctity of life. I understand and respect those views. But as I have spoken with people tormented by pain, I have come to see this as a matter of individual choice that does not have to be about shortening life but rather about shortening dying. And I do not believe that in every instance condemning someone to excruciating pain and suffering preserves the dignity and sanctity of life.

It is hard to imagine a more Orwellian locution for suicide than “shortening dying.”

Somehow Gov. Hochul was able to draw as distorted a meaning from a Catholic funeral as she had taken from the American founding, saying:

I reflected on this during a Catholic funeral Mass for a family friend where the priest spoke of the welcome home to eternal life. I was taught that God is merciful and compassionate, and so must we be. This includes permitting a merciful option to those facing the unimaginable and searching for comfort in their final months in this life.

Tragically, Gov. Hochul is also woefully naive about the so-called safeguards. She thinks that a five-day waiting period will “provide the patient the chance to change their mind” and that “a written and recorded oral request to confirm free will is present.”

Adding to the naive attempts to give reassurance, Gov. Hochul adds: “These are fundamental protections to ensure vulnerable people aren’t pressured, misled or left without alternatives.”

Famous. Last. Words.

Finally, consider the concluding way in which she has already begun to romanticize suicide:

The Medical Aid in Dying Act will afford terminally ill New Yorkers the right to spend their final days not under sterile hospital lights but with sunlight streaming through their bedroom window. The right to spend their final days not hearing the droning hum of hospital machines but instead the laughter of their grandkids echoing in the next room. The right to tell their family they love them and be able to hear those precious words in return.

I’m following these developments in the US closely and am in touch with friends and counterparts doing their utmost to prevent this tragedy from sweeping America.

Just yesterday, I was asked the following question in an interview to which I gave the following reply:

Health Care News: Many Americans see Canada as foreshadowing where Western health systems might go. Do you believe the United States is 10 years to 20 years behind Canada on euthanasia expansion—or do you think it has the structural, cultural, or legal safeguards to stop this slide?

Achtman: In Canada, MAID encompasses both euthanasia (medical practitioner administered) and assisted suicide (patient-administered). In 2023, MAID was self-administered in fewer than five instances.” Currently, every state that has legalized assisted suicide requires patients to self-administer the lethal substance. This is a massive deterrent, which is good. However, it is a very precarious deterrent because as soon as there is a legal challenge by someone who cannot self-administer, that could usher in direct euthanasia across the United States very quickly.

I think the Governors of Illinois and New York chose to sign these bills just before Christmas in hopes that the people who care most about this would be too busy celebrating life to be able to keep fighting for it over the holidays.

And so, I thank you for paying attention and taking the time to stay informed.