A federal lawsuit has been filed by disability rights organizations to block New York’s Medical Aid in Dying law, which is set to take effect on August 5. The plaintiffs argue that the law illegally pushes vulnerable New Yorkers towards suicide instead of providing them with support and medical care. The law allows mentally capable, terminally ill adults with under six months to live to request medication to end their lives. The plaintiffs claim that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the U.S. Constitution, and that it creates an unfair medical system
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Disability rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit in New York on Thursday to block the Medical Aid in Dying law, which is supposed to take effect on August 5. In the lawsuit, which you can read at the bottom of this story, the plaintiffs argued that the law illegally pushes vulnerable New Yorkers toward suicide instead of giving them support and medical care.
Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed the legislation in February to let mentally capable, terminally ill adults with under six months to live request medication to end their lives. Her office declined to address the lawsuit’s specific legal claims Thursday but defended the statute’s integrity.
“While we cannot comment on any pending litigation, the historic legislation allows terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live to make a voluntary, informed decision to request medication for medical aid in dying,” said a Hochul spokesperson on Thursday. “It reflects years of thoughtful planning and consideration.”
The End Assisted Suicide coalition filed the civil rights complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn against Hochul, the Department of Health, the Office of Mental Health, and the state Board for Medicine. They asked the judge to stop the state from enforcing the law, claiming it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Affordable Care Act, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the U.S. Constitution.
In the lawsuit and a press release, the advocates said that New York is creating an unfair medical system, and that doctors frequently misdiagnose patients and give inaccurate timelines for death. They alleged that the state is creating a “two-tiered medical system” that deprives the disabled of life-saving interventions while offering standard, effective, life-saving suicide prevention treatment to the able-bodied.
Matt Vallière from the Institute for Patients’ Rights said that disabled people “are offered death instead of the support programs everyone else gets.”
The coalition includes the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, the Institute for Patients’ Rights, Not Dead Yet, and the United Spinal Association. Individual disabled citizens also joined the lawsuit, including Rochester residents José Hernández, who has a spinal cord injury and relies on daily medical assistance, and Anita Cameron, who has multiple degenerative disabilities and loss of vision.
Both claimed that the law could inspire doctors to classify them as terminally ill and eligible for the life-ending drugs should they lose their current supports. According to Hernández, doctors diagnosed his terminally ill mother with only six months left to live because of cancer. But instead, she received adequate medical treatment that let her survive for years.
“If she had chosen to end her life, I would have missed out on 13 years of goodnight kisses, home-cooked meals, and the opportunity to be raised by a mother who made me the strong man I am,” Hernández said.
The plaintiffs claim that the law needs more safety measures. While it requires a mental health professional to evaluate a patient’s decision-making ability, the law doesn’t require treating underlying depression or thoughts of suicide.
The plaintiffs also outlined an apparent financial incentive. “When states legalize assisted suicide while simultaneously cutting home care and community-based services, they send a dangerous message: that death is a solution for disability and lack of support,” said Sharon Shapiro from the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled in a press release.
Some supporters of the law rejected those claims on Thursday, arguing that it is voluntary and protects patients’ autonomy. Veronica Darling from the advocacy group Compassion and Choices said the law includes language to make sure that disability alone would neither qualify nor disqualify someone from access.
“These laws are not about discrimination, they are about compassion, dignity, and respecting the healthcare choices of terminally ill adults when it matters most,” she said, offering the statistic that 79% of Americans with disabilities support medical aid in dying.
Other supporters of the law, like NYSDOH Commissioner Dr. James McDonald, have said that it represents a kindness for those who are suffering. In a June 3 press release, he said, “Medical aid in dying addresses deeply personal decisions that may arise for individuals facing a terminal illness and their loved ones.”
Besides the professional evaluation of a patient’s decision-making, the law has other requirements meant to prevent misuse. Patients have to make a recorded verbal request and a signed written request witnessed by two neutral witnesses. And two different doctors have to confirm that the illness is terminal. Patients also have to wait five days before receiving the medication—though doctors can prescribe the drugs on the same day, if they determine that the patient has under five days to live—and administer the drug themselves.
Should the law take effect, pharmacists, doctors, and other healthcare providers wouldn’t face penalties for honoring a request in good faith, nor would they be disciplined for refusing to participate. But when refusing, they’ll have to transfer the patient to another provider. And anyone who might benefit financially from the patient’s death can’t bear witness to their written request for lethal drugs.
DOH opened a public comment period on June 3 for rules regulating how doctors report these life-ending prescriptions. Hochul’s office said those regulations will usher in the law in a thoughtful and responsible way. DOH will stop accepting feedback on August 3.
In 2017, New York’s highest court ruled in “Myers v. Schneiderman” that mentally competent, terminally ill residents have no constitutional right to a lethal prescription. But they nonetheless paved the way for Medical Aid in Dying, unanimously acknowledging that lawmakers could create a legal, valid exemption to the penal code through legislation.
The legislation passed after over a decade of advocacy. Democratic Assemblymember Amy Paulin sponsored the bill in the Assembly, motivating by her sister’s death from ovarian cancer. Democratic State Senators Jessica Scarcella-Spanton and Brad Hoylman-Sigal—now the Manhattan Borough presidnet—led the effort in the Senate.
The coalition announced the federal lawsuit during a disability community forum protesting assisted suicide outside the U.N. in Manhattan on Thursday. It’s the last day of the 19th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
