Photo Credit: Marc Gronich
Signage from each side from proponents and opponents, were flying all over the Capitol while the debates were ongoing. The above sign was from proponents of the measure seeking to sway lawmakers who were on the fence until the last minute.

 

The debate in the state Senate over a bill to allow medical aid in dying (MAID), also referred to as assisted suicide, which ultimately passed, showcased two very different perspectives among lawmakers.

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Proponents used words such as compassion, personal autonomy, liberty, “go out on their own terms,” dignity, self-determination, peace of mind, and “navigating the end of life peacefully.” Opponents spoke of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, coercion, dangerous, destructive, lack of control (over the prescription of a lethal cocktail drug known as pentobarbital), “first do no harm,” mandatory psychiatric evaluation, doctor-shopping, and “this bill is not ready.”

Some legislators spoke of personal circumstances in their lives, something which always triggers a tear-jerker moment in an effort to sway their opponents to vote for the measure.

“In 1988 my husband died of the most painful form of cancer. He was 33 years old,” said Senator Rachel May (D – Syracuse, Onondaga County). “Initially the doctors didn’t want to control his pain because they said the pain was their only guide of the progression of the disease. When they finally ran out of ways to treat the disease, they didn’t want to give him pain control because they said morphine was too addictive. I had to move heaven and earth to find a doctor who would prescribe him morphine in the doses that would actually control his pain. Then [I had to overcome the difficulty] to find a pharmacist who would fill the prescription. I don’t know if the last largest dose he took also took his life, but I know he died in peace. I also know that in those last few weeks, when he knew he had access to a drug that could control his pain, he didn’t have the kind of anxiety and fear that he had lived with for at least a year before that time.”

May said the issue is “about having control at the end of your life. Our medical profession has prolonged our lives, prolonged our death, and people want some sort of control.”

This led to another lawmaker telling his story about his grandmother. “My mother watched her mother die a very painful death from cancer and we spoke about this… She was in hospice at that point,” said Senator Pete Harckham (D – South Salem, Westchester County). “When we talked about the morphine being administered and how it would come in gradually, [my grandmother] literally said to me, ‘Why can’t I have it all at once?’ At 98 years old, her mind was sharp, she was reading two newspapers a day, she read four books a week, her body had failed her and she lost her dignity. This bill will not help my grandmother, but it will help someone else’s.”

 

A third story was revealed by a freshman senator from Long Island who represents a large Jewish constituency. “I, too, was a young widow with four children who suffered terribly over the loss of their father. That is why every day in this chamber I advocate for them. That is why I’m a senator to make sure they have a better life. We talk about mental health in this chamber all the time and what we can do to protect people from suicide and to make sure they have mental health support,” said Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick (R – Malverne, Nassau County). “The lack of control over a lethal cocktail going into a home where potentially there is a parent dying and young children in that home… To think [they don’t] want to live without mom or dad and [would] have access to lethal drugs in their home if they are mentally unstable is a risk I am not willing to take. One child dying from that is way too many. I vote no.”

MAID is being practiced in 12 jurisdictions – 11 states and the District of Columbia for the past 30 years.

“If we can’t trust the doctor to handle a terminally ill patient, well, then we ought not to be trusting them with any other patient,” David Hoffman, 65, a Shelter Island, Suffolk County resident who is a political bioethicist and an assistant professor of bioethics at Columbia University, told The Jewish Press. “I don’t imagine there will be any cases. If there were going to be cases in New York, there would have been cases all over the country,” he said, referring to malfeasance in the practice of MAID.

“We need to stay really focused on the small and important population of patients who are terminally ill who have a six month or so prognosis. It is not necessarily that the prognosis is exactly right. We want to be sure that the patient doesn’t have a year of two to live so that we know that we’re dealing with a defined and articulable clinical circumstance,” Hoffman said. “Then we have to do what we can for those patients. For those who don’t fit that definition, we need to get them more palliative care…Because of necessity, patients who are even asking about medical aid in dying will be spoken to about palliative care. This is going to be good for palliative care.”

Another lawmaker struggled between her faith and voting on behalf of her constituents. “It is deeply, deeply personal for me given my personal faith,” said freshman Senator Pat Fahy (D – Albany). “I was elected to represent all of my constituents. There are patients who still suffer while dying. I am troubled on a few fronts – one with the progression in Canada and how it has moved to non-terminal illnesses.” Fahy ended up voting yes on the bill.

Another freshman senator, a former New York City police officer who represents a portion of Borough Park, said the people of south Brooklyn whom he represents overwhelmingly rejected the bill. Senator Stephen Chan (R – Bensonhurst, Brooklyn), a former undercover narcotics officer, said he is concerned about MAID drugs being circulated illegally. “If I took $20 and walked into [a city park] in 1999, I could walk away with Xanax, Palaniappan. I could walk away with Methadone or Viagra… Soon I will be able to buy pentobarbital…”

One veteran senator who represents a large Jewish contingent on Long Island voted no because “this bill is not ready.” Senator Jack Martins (R – Mineola, Nassau County) expressed concerns about doctor-shopping and the fact “that we don’t have mental health evaluations built into this bill as a mandatory component, because someone who looks to end their life needs to have that evaluation.”

“I am very sympathetic with the idea of personal choice and dignity but I can’t get there on this bill,” he said.

A senator from the other end of the state, in southwestern New York, also opposed the bill. “There is a reason why the American Medical Association reiterates their opposition to this bill, because doctors are in the business of saving lives. When a doctor takes an oath it says ‘First, do no harm,’” said Senator George Borrello (R – Sunset Bay, Chautauqua County). “Now we’re telling doctors to counsel their patients that it is okay to take your own life. Then we are telling doctors to prescribe deadly medication, hand it to someone, and let them walk out the door not knowing what is going to happen with that medication….The doctors who are supposed to be in the business of saving lives, prolonging lives, and protecting life are opposed to this. First, do no harm. This bill will cause harm.”

A New York City suburban senator who represents the largest Jewish community in the state told his colleagues he had no struggles voting nay. “The majority of the phone calls I got were from the disability community. They are concerned that there is no explicit ban on someone with developmental disabilities being prescribed this,” said Senator Bill Weber (R – Spring Valley, Rockland County). “A developmental disability cannot be your sole diagnosis. The disability community has had the experience of the other states that have had this in place for a while and they do not feel at ease. I’m not really comfortable with any of the protections for the elderly, for the people who are disabled. The most vulnerable in our society could be subject to very bad actors. We could be creating Dr. Kevorkians all across New York state and I’m not comfortable with it.”

“Almost every single call I received was in opposition to this bill, not only in the Jewish community. I have a large Catholic community as well. They are opposed to the bill,” he said, calling it “sloppily written.”

Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, both Jewish, are the sponsors of the MAID bill. After the historic Senate vote, the two lawmakers took a victory lap visiting with more than two dozen advocates who were waiting for them outside the Senate gallery.

When the bill finally passed the Senate after a two-hour debate, it was by an eight-vote margin, 35 to 27. Of the five Senators who identify as being Jewish, newly minted lawmaker Sam Sutton, a Sephardic Orthodox Jew, voted against the measure but did not explain his vote. After final passage in the Senate, the sponsors of the bill, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D – Scarsdale, Westchester County) and Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D – Greenwich Village, Manhattan), both Jewish, took a victory lap greeting advocates of the bill in the Senate lobby.

“Hearing personal stories is galvanizing and motivating, and you know how important it is,” Paulin told The Jewish Press. “I have mentioned that my sister died a very painful death at the end… For Jane, this is for Jane.”

The 150-member Assembly passed the bill earlier in the session by a vote of 81 to 67. Two members did not vote on the measure. Of the 26 members identifying as Jewish, six Republicans and seven Democrats voted against the bill, and 13 Jewish lawmakers, all Democrats, supported the measure.

“We understand the moral concern on the other side of the aisle but we choose to act independently within our own moral code,” Holyman-Sigal said after the bill passed. “Whether it’s been abortion, gay marriage, adultery, gestational surrogacy complicated moral issues that we’ve addressed in this chamber, we have viewed through the lens of personal autonomy and liberty.”

The Jewish and Catholic communities were the main opponents to this bill.

“We’re obviously opposed to it for a number of reasons. From a religious standpoint, the Jewish religion maintains we don’t own our bodies. This bill has a lot of questions including [about the lack of] proper safeguards,” Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, government relations director for Agudath Israel, told The Jewish Press. “There’s always the concern of coercion. If a prescription is written for a person who is told they have six months to live, do we know for sure they won’t be forced on somebody else? You can’t have police in every house to make sure the pills are self-ingested. How do we know the pills were self-ingested?”

Agudah, which has a strong presence in Albany, issued a statement after the Senate vote. “Our tradition teaches that every human being is created in the image of G-d and that every moment of life has infinite value,” said Rabbi David Zwiebel, Agudah’s executive vice president. “Society legalizing coordinated killing, even in the difficult situation where the victim is in pain, erodes that value. It tells the vulnerable among us their lives don’t matter. The Medical Aid in Dying Act sends precisely such a dangerous and destructive message.

“Since time immemorial, civilized societies have drawn a hard line on the issue of suicide. Taking one’s own life is a tragedy of untold proportion. Allowing physicians – whose calling is to heal – to serve as active accomplices in bringing about this tragedy of taking human life is a profound moral and practical misstep.”

The governor has until the end of the calendar year to decide whether to sign the landmark legislation. 


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Marc Gronich is the owner and news director of Statewide News Service. He has been covering government and politics for 44 years, since the administration of Hugh Carey. He is an award-winning journalist. His Albany Beat column appears monthly in The Jewish Press and his coverage about how Jewish life intersects with the happenings at the state Capitol appear weekly in the newspaper. You can reach Mr. Gronich at swnsonline@gmail.com.