Jewish Community Figures Mourn Passing of Amendments to Assisted Suicide Bill, Clearing Way for Hochul to Sign Into Law

The New York State Legislature moved with unusual speed Wednesday  to approve chapter amendments to the state’s controversial medical assistance in dying legislation, bringing the assisted suicide bill one step closer to becoming law despite fierce opposition from religious communities and medical ethicists.

The Assembly voted 83-62 in favor of the amendments, while the Senate approved them 34-28 – margins that were about the same as the original bill’s passage. Governor Kathy Hochul is expected to sign the legislation into law.

The rapid legislative action caught many opponents off guard. The amendments were added to the week’s committee schedule only Tuesday morning, according to public advocate Yonasan Teleky, who has been closely monitoring the bill’s progress.

Critics argue that despite Governor Hochul’s proposed amendments, the fundamental dangers of the legislation remain largely intact.

“The purpose of these improvements is only to help the governor approve the assisted suicide bill,” Teleky explained. “These so-called protections are really just there to endanger people by making the bill passable.”

Among the most contentious provisions that survived the amendment process is a requirement forcing doctors to transfer patient medical records to physicians willing to perform assisted suicide, even when doing so violates their religious beliefs.

“This would force religious doctors to have a part in the process, even if they’re somewhat exempt,” Teleky noted, describing the provision as a fundamental violation of religious rights.

Rabbi Dr. Aharon Glatt, a prominent physician in the frum community, expressed deep concerns about the bill’s practical implications.

“I’m very concerned that people who might otherwise have had a chance to live will unfortunately select to die,” Rabbi Glatt told Belaaz. He emphasized the critical distinction in Halacha between passive and active interventions at the end of life.

“There’s a big difference between actively and passively doing things or not doing things. To do something actively that is extinguishing life – that is not permitted. To sometimes refrain from doing something, that might be permitted,” he explained. “Unfortunately, this bill would allow people to do things actively to end life.”

Rabbi Glatt urged community members to exercise extreme caution when facing end-of-life decisions. “It may be that sometimes people might be offered by well-meaning and good-intentioned physicians things that are contrary to Jewish law, and they have to be very careful. Even though the physician is a nice person, a trusted person, they’re not necessarily coming from a firm religious background. They’re not necessarily coming from a Jewish legal point of view. People should make sure that they discuss these things with their rabbi before they arrive at any decisions that, unfortunately, are irreversible.”

While Hochul’s amendments did add some new restrictions – including mandating psychiatric evaluations and prohibiting witnesses from having financial interests in the patient’s death – opponents maintain these changes are woefully inadequate.

The amended legislation still contains numerous gaps that critics say could lead to abuse: witnesses’ signatures are not checked for fraud, no video recording requirement was included despite earlier indications this might be added, no oversight process exists for pharmacists dispensing lethal medications, and there are no provisions to remove lethal medication from patients who develop dementia after receiving it.

Perhaps most troubling to legal experts is a severability clause in the legislation that would allow courts to strike down individual safeguards while keeping the core assisted suicide provisions intact.

“Most of the loopholes from the original bill were never corrected,” Teleky said, warning that any protections in the bill are “worthless in the long term.”

In a letter signed by Rabbanim including the Kasho Rav and Rav Hillel Neuberger of Mount Kisco, the Rabbanim provided stark context for their opposition.

The Rabbanim cited the Torah’s prohibition against suicide, noting that when G-d commanded Noach to relay the prohibition of murder to all humanity in Bereshis 9:5, the pasuk begins: “For your spilt blood – the taking of your lives – I will demand justice.”

“Chazal received a mesorah elucidating this verse as referring to the prohibition of suicide,” the letter states.

On the pasuk of “lo sirtzach,” in the Aseres Hadibros, the rabbis’ letter cited the Targum Yonasan, saying “You shall not be murderers, nor shall you be friendly acquaintances or partners with murderers, nor shall there appear amongst you those who are associated with murderers – in order that your children not follow your example and learn to associate with murderers, …”

The Rabbanim also invoked a chilling historical parallel, noting that institutionalized “mercy killing” programs served as precursors to mass genocide.

“The Nazi Mercy-Killing Aktion T4 program directly led to the gassing of millions of Jews,” the letter warns. “Aktion T4 led directly to Operation Reinhard, which was the Nazi extermination camp operation encompassing Treblinka, Bełżec, and Sobibór.”

The letter notes that of approximately 450 perpetrators within Operation Reinhard camps, about 92 have been identified as having been previously involved in the Aktion T4 euthanasia program. “Aktion T4 was also sold by ‘compassion,’ ‘consent,’ and ‘safeguards,'” the Rabbanim wrote.

A community advocate, speaking on condition of anonymity, offered a scathing assessment of the community’s response to the bill’s passage in remarks shared with Belaaz on Thursday.

“We failed to properly convey that a vote for this legislation is an attack on the Jewish community (as well as on many others), due both to its lethality and its anti-religious nature, including its requirement for doctors to forward medical records to doctors willing to do the killing,” the askan said.

The askan also criticized past political strategy: “We failed to demonstrate previously on other issues of moral concern – for example, marriage redefinition – that we’re communally ready to vote out offending politicians even if they throw wads of taxpayer money at us and at community institutions.”

The askan also called for electoral consequences: “We also must never vote for, support, or publicly honor any of the legislative representatives who collaborated in this legislation, under any circumstances.”

With the amendments now approved and Governor Hochul expected to sign the bill, the legislation known as Assembly Bill A9515 (Senate Bill S8835) appears headed for enactment.

The bill’s sponsor in the Assembly is Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, with Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, head of the Codes Committee, also supporting the legislation.

Rabbi Glatt advised that individuals and families must be prepared to seek proper guidance before making any irreversible medical decisions – particularly in a legal landscape that now permits assisted suicide.