Source: New York Post
A coalition advocating for patients with disabilities filed federal lawsuits Thursday seeking to scrap New York and Illinois’ controversial doctor-assisted suicide laws for allegedly treating the terminally ill as “disposable. ” The New York state Health Department recently published rules for administering the law, which takes effect August 5 and allows terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live to make a voluntary, informed decision to request medication to end their lives via suicide. But the lawsuits argue that the doctor-assisted suicide laws in both states discriminate against people with disabilities by singling them out for lethal prescriptions rather than providing equal access to the care, support and suicide prevention services offered to other patients perceived as non or less disabled.
