The Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) bill, A.136/S.138, now sits on Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk awaiting her signature. Reports suggest she may add a few “safeguards” before signing, but these are superficial at best. They do nothing to fix what is fundamentally wrong with the bill or to address the profound injustice it creates. No amount of revision can make assisted suicide safe in a healthcare system that already discriminates against, devalues, and fails to protect people with disabilities.
Supporters claim the bill contains adequate protections such as a six-month terminal prognosis, mental competence, and a written, witnessed request. Yet in states like Oregon, where such laws already exist, these safeguards have steadily weakened. Over time, people who are sick, disabled, or simply dependent on others begin to see death as their only option. The “six months to live” rule is arbitrary, unreliable and often wrong by years. People can be prescribed lethal medication not because they are dying, but because they are expensive to care for or made to feel that their lives no longer have value.
Adding more mental health reviews or paperwork will not fix this bill. Legalizing assisted suicide in a society that already treats disabled people as less worthy of care is not compassion; it is abandonment disguised as choice. People with disabilities already fight every day for basic medical care, home and community based supports, and equal treatment. Giving doctors the power to end the lives of those viewed as suffering too much or burdensome only turns systemic neglect into policy.
This debate also comes at a time when the federal government is cutting healthcare subsidies and shifting more costs to individuals. For many, especially those with disabilities or chronic conditions, navigating an expensive and broken system is overwhelming. As access narrows and costs rise, people may start to feel like a burden on their families or caregivers. When life-sustaining supports become unaffordable or unavailable, the so-called choice of assisted death becomes one made from financial desperation and social pressure, not free will. The MAID bill does not expand freedom; it exploits inequality.
Evidence from Oregon is deeply troubling. Since 1997, the share of people choosing assisted death who rely on public insurance has grown from 35 to 80 percent, while private insurance coverage has sharply declined; the increase in assisted suicides is drawn disproportionately from the less affluent segment of society. Nearly half of those who seek assisted death now cite fear of being a burden as their primary reason, not pain or suffering. These numbers show that people often choose death because they feel unwanted and unsupported. For people with disabilities, who already confront stigma and undervaluation, this law would magnify every injustice in the system.
New York’s failure to ensure adequate long-term care, home supports, and accessible community mental health services only deepens the danger. When people cannot get the support they need to live safely and with dignity, death can begin to look like relief. Oversight in states with assisted death laws has also eroded. In Oregon, psychiatric referrals have dropped from 28 percent to just 1 percent, and the average doctor-patient relationship before prescribing lethal medication is now only a few weeks. This is not compassion; it is neglect.
The consequences are personal. When my son was born with significant disabilities and spent months in the NICU, we were repeatedly pressured by physicians to end his life. They said he would not survive and that it would be better for him and for us to let him go. Fourteen years later, that same child is doing well. His life is not a miracle; it is proof that quality of life is too often defined by prejudice, not reality.
Governor Hochul may believe amendments can make this bill safe, but no version can protect people in a system already biased against them. When disability and dependence are seen as suffering, offering assisted suicide is like pouring gasoline on a fire. Rather than legalizing assisted death, New York must fix the inequities in healthcare, long-term care, and mental health access. Until then, choice is an illusion born of poverty, discrimination, and despair.
STIC urges Governor Hochul to veto the Medical Aid in Dying bill. This legislation would have lethal consequences for those already devalued by the systems meant to support them. Even with added safeguards, MAID would codify the belief that some lives, particularly those with disabilities, are expendable. New York must not repeat the mistakes of other states that have sanctioned death as a substitute for care.