Disability rights groups challenge NY, IL assisted suicide laws

Disability rights groups filed two federal lawsuits last week to stop New York and Illinois from legalizing assisted suicide later this year.

The End Assisted Suicide coalition filed the cases in federal courts in Brooklyn and Chicago. Plaintiffs include the National Council on Independent Living, Not Dead Yet, the Institute for Patients’ Rights, United Spinal Association, state disability groups and individual plaintiffs.

New York’s law takes effect Aug. 5. Illinois’ law, known as Deb’s Law, takes effect Sept. 12.

Both laws let some adults with terminal illnesses ask doctors for drugs they would take to end their own lives. Patients must have a prognosis of six months or less to live. Supporters call the practice medical aid in dying. Opponents call it assisted suicide.

The lawsuits argue New York and Illinois violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the 14th Amendment.

Plaintiffs say the laws create a separate system for people with serious illness or disability. A person without a terminal diagnosis who says he wants to die may receive suicide prevention help, while a person with a terminal diagnosis may receive lethal drugs, they contend.

“Assisted suicide laws in New York and Illinois create a separate and unequal system in which people with life-threatening disabilities are offered death instead of the support programs everyone else gets,” Matt Vallière, president and executive director of the Institute for Patients’ Rights, said in a release.

The lawsuits argue the states should not answer fear, pain, loneliness or lack of home care with a prescription for death.

José Hernández, a New York plaintiff with disabilities, said his mother received a Stage IV ovarian cancer diagnosis when he was a child. Doctors thought she had six months to live, but she lived 13 more years.

“At the time, assisted suicide was not available, and thankfully so,” Hernández said.

Ebony Payne, a quadriplegic woman from Chicago and a plaintiff in the Illinois case, also criticized the law.

“I joined the lawsuit because of personal experiences that brought me really close to death and the people who I leaned on to do the right thing became the people to do the opposite,” Payne said. “It [the Illinois law] is a train wreck and is not what you expect from people who are obligated to do no harm.”

Compassion & Choices, a pro-assisted suicide group, defended the New York and Illinois laws.

“These laws are not about discrimination, they are about compassion, dignity, and respecting the healthcare choices of terminally ill adults when it matters most,” Veronica Darling, director of litigation for the organization, said in a release.

The lawsuits come after religious and disability rights groups warned lawmakers that assisted suicide would harm the sick, elderly and disabled.

Faith groups also urged New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto New York’s assisted suicide bill before she signed it, as The Lion previously reported. Additionally, Pope Leo urged Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to veto his state’s law before he signed it.

Meanwhile, Washington state stopped publishing annual data on assisted-suicide deaths last year, raising concerns about potential abuse.