NEW YORK CITY, October 22, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – A judge who said she is sympathetic to assisted suicide has ruled that doctors who help patients end their lives can be prosecuted under the law.
According to New York Daily News, Manhattan judge Joan Kenney told Steve Goldenberg, Sara Myers, and Eric Seiff that not only is assisted suicide illegal in the state, but such actions are not within a patient's civil rights.
“In New York, as in most states, it is a crime to aid another to commit or attempt suicide,” Kenney ruled. “But patients may refuse lifesaving medical treatment.”
The three plaintiffs suffer from AIDS, ALS, and bladder cancer, respectively. Their case comes as the state legislature is debating whether to make assisted suicide legal statewide.
One very ill advocate against the legislation is former Democratic gubernatorial aide J.J. Hanson. A husband and father of one, Hanson has founded a patients' rights group he told LifeSiteNews is dedicated to providing information to all sides of the debate.
“Assisted suicide diminishes the focus on patients choosing to fight and survive a terminal diagnosis,” Hanson explained. “It reinforces the implicit and explicit message from doctors, insurers, and government that people living with a 'terminal' prognosis or disability may be better off dead.”
Hanson suffers from Grade 4 Glioblastoma, the same brain cancer that led Brittany Maynard to make a national push for assisted suicide before she took her own life.
