Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader

Meghan is an instructor at E4 – University of Texas (Austin) and an EPC-USA board member.

Unfortunately, New York’s senate has voted to legalize assisted suicide, and the bill now goes to the governor’s desk. In order to ask the governor to veto the legislation, contact her. If you live in New York and can get to the capital building, please consider paying the governor’s office a visit to explain why assisted suicide will exacerbate the world’s pattern of systemic ableism.

With regard to that pattern, it’s not shocking that New York legislators would ignore the disabled community’s opposition to this policy. Despite New York’s protestations of progressivism, the state has not been particularly kind to its disabled community: the governor calling home care services a “racket,” the governor giving a speech in which the only time she mentioned disabled people was to promote increased institutionalization to stop gun violence, Andrew Cuomo allowing Covid 19 to run rampant through nursing home facilities, New York candidate Andrew Yang suggesting institutionalizing people with psychiatric disabilities so they do no harm property values, and the subway system being largely inaccessible to disabled people. In 2021 the director of New York’s ACLU delusionally said that her organization had been advocating for disabled people “for decades,” even though NYCLU’s webpage of disability rights commentary goes back only to 2020; three of the commentaries being about how wonderful “MAiD” is for the disabled community. NYCLU apparently does not care about the input from disability rights groups that really have been advocating for disability rights for decades; the national ACLU did not create a disability rights division until 2012, ninety two years after the organization was founded. So, if you are a disabled New Yorker who gets institutionalized, or your disability can become terminal without the correct support and people around you pressure you to die by assisted suicide don’t worry, the ACLU will be there for you in nine decades.

But if New York’s governor does sign its assisted suicide bill, I don’t see why New York has to doom the rest of the country. I think some opponents are likely feeling demoralized by the fear that assisted suicide being legalized in New York means it will inevitably be legalized throughout the country. If we give up and let the proponents just march in wherever they feel like it, sure, but there’s no reason why we have to do that.

It is sad that the proponents may achieve a victory in New York, but there would still be 38 states that have not legalized assisted suicide. Despite the movement of SB138 in New York, the anti assisted suicide movement still has important tools at its disposal. There is still the United Spinal lawsuit in California, and I think we have a good chance at succeeding if we can get SCOTUS to take the case.

The American Association of Suicidology’s 2023 “retirement” of its 2017 “MAiD is not suicide” statement is a huge win for us. The American Medical Association’s reaffirmation of its opposition to assisted suicide is another significant victory.

So, don’t throw in the towel. The legalization of assisted suicide is not “inevitable.” Re-double the time you spend on the issue. Look for ways in which such policies can be corrected. And this is one of the most important things I can reiterate: make sure members of the anti assisted suicide movement are working together to ensure disabled people everywhere have the support we need to flourish: a strong social support system, excellent mental health services, a good education, accessible employment, etc. These things provide a bulwark against the ableist degradation that leads to suicide, both assisted an unassisted.