By Katie Vasquez and Bill Miller
MIDTOWN EAST — As temperatures slid into the 20s, a candlelight vigil formed Dec. 4 outside of the Manhattan office of Gov. Kathy Hochul, urging her not to sign a bill that would legalize assisted suicide in New York.
Among them was Bishop Robert Brennan, who told reporters before the event that opponents fear assisted suicide unfairly targets poor and vulnerable people.
“We talk about the slippery slope,” Bishop Brennan said. “In other places where it’s been enacted, what starts off as a choice very quickly becomes an encouragement. “When there’s the availability of something quicker, and that brings death sooner. These are concerning to us.”
The Medical Aid in Dying Act to legalize euthanasia in New York was approved in late spring by both houses of the legislature. Since then, Hochul has not indicated whether she will veto it or sign it into law, although she is expected to act by year’s end.
A few hours before the vigil, Hochul would not indicate how she would handle the bill, except to say she had been giving careful weight to both sides of the issue.
“This is a very challenging moral question for individuals,” Hochul said during a press conference in her Midtown office. “That is why I’ve taken the time, and I’m treating this very seriously because I know there are very heartfelt, strong emotions on both sides of the debate.”
Bishop Brennan said he appreciated Hochul’s sensitivity.
“The governor has shown an openness to hearing from people,” Bishop Brennan said. “So, we’re here with a coalition of different people to say we are concerned about this, and to take her at her word that she wants to listen.”
He also said he hoped Hochul would respond consistently with her other suicide-prevention proposals.
“She has expressed concern about the suicide crisis that we face in the state,” Bishop Brennan noted. “But what message do you send to the young people when you say that sometimes suicide is OK?”
Earlier in the week, the news organization Gothamist reported that Hochul was considering a revised bill that would mandate psychiatric evaluations of patients and require them to videotape themselves requesting euthanasia drugs.
Another added requirement would ensure people from outside New York would not be eligible to receive the life-ending drugs.
When asked if a revised bill would be more palatable, Bishop Brennan flatly said, “No.”
“I’m generally very open to finding middle ways and compromises,” he explained. “But in a situation like this, there is no compromise. The taking of a life is the taking of a life.
“We want to promote the dignity of every human life.”
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Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, told The Tablet that if Hochul is inclined to sign the bill, but wants changes, she could negotiate “chapter amendments” with the state legislature.
Poust said this is basically a “gentleman’s agreement” that the legislature will pass the changes if she signs it.
“If that were to happen,” he added, “she would sign the bill as is, and then the legislature would, when they come back in January, immediately pass a new bill that makes amendments that she requested.”
Poust said he has seen reports that Hochul is negotiating with the bill’s proponents on chapter amendments. Meanwhile, there have been no such negotiations with opponents, he said.
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Poust agreed that no changes would make the bill acceptable to the opposition.
“That’s because we think, fundamentally, it’s an unfixable bill,” he said. “Whatever changes they make, at the end of the day, you’re still allowing physicians to prescribe medicines that will kill people.
“We believe she needs to veto it outright.”
Priests and religious sisters also attended the vigil, but the crowd was not exclusively Catholic.
Jessica Rodgers, director of the Patients Rights Action Fund, said the estimated 100-plus attendees represented many different faiths and “certainly people of no faith.”
“Like all opposition against assisted suicide,” Rodgers said, “you’re going to find people who agree on nothing else except that the state shouldn’t sanction suicide, particularly for our most vulnerable neighbors.
RELATED: New York Bishops Urge You To Say ‘No’ To Assisted Suicide
“So tonight, we had people from disability justice groups. We had many doctors here, nurses here, and medical professionals who stand with the American Medical Association in opposing assisted suicide.”
Jose Hernandez, who attended the vigil, took a moment to share his thoughts on assisted suicide.
“My mother was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer,” Hernandez said. “She was given six months to live, but she lived for 13 years.
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“If assisted suicide was available back then, and she would have chosen to end her life, I would have missed out on 13 years of loving each other and allowing me to grow up into an adult.”
Hernandez said he also worries that the bill would “incentivize insurance companies” to deny care but approve euthanasia drugs.
“So, we hope that the governor vetoes this bill,” he said. “It’s not the right way. It’s not a good look in New York.”
TAKE ACTION
Join the New York State Catholic Conference in Demanding a Stop To Physician-Assisted Suicide
Scan the QR code below to contact New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office and voice your opposition to the bill, or head to nyscatholic.org/action-center.