- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has until December to decide whether to sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act, which would make New York the 13th state to legalize assisted suicide.
- A majority (56%) of New Yorkers support the bill, but older people are less likely to favor it.
- A recent on-camera murder confession on an Albany, New York TV station is complicating the narrative around assisted suicide for the elderly.
A piece of legislation that could legalize assisted suicide in New York is sitting on top of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk, waiting for her decision on whether to sign.
Hochul has until the end of December to decide if New York will join 12 other states that allow doctors to administer lethal drugs to “hasten death” for patients.
New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act passed 81-67 in the House and 35-27 in the Senate.
Currently, New York is one of 17 states considering assisted suicide legislation.
Older people are less likely to support assisted suicide, poll shows
A public policy poll recently showed 56% of New Yorkers want Hochul to sign the bill, while 23% don’t.
Older poll participants were far less likely to support the “dignity in dying” legislation, although 53% expressed support. Those in the youngest age group referenced (30- to 45-year-olds) were the most likely to support the bill, at 66%.
In Canada, where assisted suicide has been legal since 2016, it now accounts for one in 20 deaths. The median age is roughly 77, which is several years below the country’s average life expectancy.
For about 96% of assisted suicide deaths in Canada, doctors had told patients they had a “reasonably foreseeable” death due to medical conditions, the BBC reported.
Of 13,241 assisted suicides in Canada in 2022, more than 2,000 decided to end their lives because of loneliness, more than 300 because they couldn’t get palliative care and about 200 because they couldn’t find adequate disability services.
‘Death with dignity’ may erode younger generations’ respect for old age
As New York debates assisted suicide, a murder confession on a local New York TV news station has complicated the narrative.
Lorenz Kraus, 53, confessed to murdering his parents and burying their bodies in his backyard during an interview at the end of September with CBS6 Albany. He said their old age and declining health made his decision necessary.
Kraus defended his decision based on his parents’ declining health. His father, 92, had received cataract surgery and could not drive, and his mother, 83, had recently fallen, making it hard for her to get around.
“I did the right thing for them based on the situation. I did my duty as a son,” he said.
Kraus continued, “There are 40 million boomers. They’re all going to go through these kinds of problems. It affects all of us, and we need to widen up the law so that we can deal with these kinds of problems in a humane way.”
“We have to squeeze the law to fit the humans, not us the humans to fit the law,” he said.
Kraus said he strangled his father with his hands, and a few hours later, he suffocated his mother with a rope.
Kraus added that his parents had “implicitly, not explicitly” asked him to end their lives. “They didn’t explicitly say that, but they made it clear that they were going down hill,” he told CBS.
He buried both of his parents in the backyard of their home and planted a peach tree near his mother. For the next eight years, Kraus mowed his parents lawn, shoveled their driveway and collected their Social Security money.
His parents’ neighbor told Sky News that Kraus had told her his parents moved to Germany.
“It’s a reality of the human experience,” he said in the interview.