As Gov. Hochul considers the assisted suicide bill sitting on her desk, she needs to listen to the voices of her most vulnerable constituents who would be harmed if this ill-conceived bill is enacted into law.
If signed, the so-called “Medical Aid in Dying” act would bestow power to physicians and the medical establishment at the expense of disabled and vulnerable patients.
Physician attitudes towards those with disabilities are alarming, as surveys show that doctors think people like me, with disabilities, have a lower quality of life than a non-disabled person. For example, only 40.7% of surveyed physicians felt “very confident” in their ability to provide equal quality care to patients with disabilities, a Harvard study found.
People with disabilities can lead happy and productive lives using wheelchairs, ventilators, and personal care assistance. However, it is generally erroneously assumed that once someone loses bodily functions, life is no longer worth living. In fact, that’s the very reason that many patients give in Oregon as to why they request assisted suicide.
Needing personal care is connected to “dignity” as though the care needs we experience impact our humanity or worth. People with disabilities experience this prejudice every day. We are frequently told in many ways, “You’re amazing; I could never live like that.” With assisted suicide, we can now be told by our doctors, “I wouldn’t want to live like you, and now you don’t have to either.”
In movies, it is romanticized again, and again, for characters with disabilities to end their own lives, as though it is a reasonable, even good choice for them to make. But consider what autonomous choice looks like in a society that sagely nods along that the wheelchair user on the screen made a “brave” choice by ending their own life. What message does that send to the disability community fighting for equal care and equal access in a world that is increasingly hostile to our existence?
We at Yad HaChazakah-The Jewish Disability Empowerment Center, proclaim that doctors and mental health professionals, who are members of the broader society, are too tainted by centuries-old fears of disability to determine who is rational and who has good reason to die.
We oppose giving the medical establishment, with the input of mental health professionals, the ability to prescribe life-ending drugs months or weeks before one’s projected time of natural death. Their evaluations will be based upon their predominant ableist attitudes about what constitutes “quality of life.” We are opposed to giving insurance companies a convenient way to save on health care and hospice costs.
If this bill is signed into law, disabled folks and seniors living on fixed incomes who are sentenced to six months or less to live will too easily be granted deadly doses. Growing numbers of patients in Oregon cite “financial implications of treatment” as a reason for their request for lethal drugs. As we see continued cuts to health care, there is no question that, coupled with assisted suicide policy, our most vulnerable neighbors will be pushed to death.
Medical providers who possess prejudicial assumptions about disability and are likely to agree to help a terminally ill person, whom they deem “rational,” to end their own life, even if their terminal condition can be treated. In the end, the medical establishment and insurance companies will be the ultimate gatekeepers over who lives or dies, based upon their attitudes towards becoming disabled and concerns for cost.
With the proper provision of pain and discomfort relief, medication or procedures, long-term care options, hospice care, living and mobility aids, lifestyle adjustments, activities, counseling, and family respite care, we can help people to live meaningful lives until the final hours. We need to work on advocating for and securing these supports; not place death as a medical tool into doctors’ hands.
Until we have adequate, and equal, access to health care and long-term care, disabled New Yorkers will be at disproportionate risk of coercion and abuse with assisted suicide policy. If the governor signs this discriminatory and dangerous legislation, she will be creating an environment where it is easier for us to find a doctor who will end our lives than it is to find a doctor who thinks our lives are even worth living, will provide equal care, and connect us to life-affirming support and resources.
Gov. Hochul, disabled New Yorkers are calling on you to represent us and to veto A.136. It’s simply too dangerous for New York.
Shapiro-Lacks is the executive director of Yad HaChazakah-The Jewish Disability Empowerment Center.
