By Daniel Leddy for the Staten Island Advance Advocates for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in New York suffered a decisive defeat in court early this month. In its May 3 ruling in Myers v. Schneiderman, a unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, declared...
By Emily Belz Assisted suicide advocates have pressed their cause in state legislatures this year, and now they’re trying to enlist the courts ALBANY, N.Y.—J.J. Hanson, 35, is a tall former Marine from New York’s Hudson Valley who did a tour in Iraq. He speaks so quickly...
It may not be just coincidence that the rise in suicides since 1999 correlates to the implementation of the first physician-assisted suicide law in Oregon (“Suicides Climb After Years of Declines,” U.S. News, April 22). Since then, four more states have legalized physician-assisted suicide, with...
'Assisted suicide legislation reinforces the idea that people with disabilities are burdensome and our lives are not worth living.' The New York Association on Independent Living (NYAIL) is a statewide, not-for-profit membership association created by and composed of Independent Living Centers across New York State. Independent...
J.J. Hanson first heard of Brittany Maynard in October 2014, as the 29-year-old woman's decision to end her life was garnering national attention. Hanson was struck by what he and Maynard shared: A rare brain cancer called glioblastoma. And predictions from doctors that they would die...
If we say we value all lives, what do we tell people with disabilities about assisted suicide? The concept of physician assisted suicide remains as controversial a topic as ever. The debates have escalated as New York Assemblywoman Amy Paulin has introduced a bill to incorporate Aid...
“The economic drivers behind this policy are dangerous and need to be looked at,” said David Kim, CEO of the Beacon Christian Community Health Center on Staten Island. “It would cost the health care system less to allow aid-in-dying rather than keep terminally-ill patients alive.” On...
Hanson, the president of the national Patients' Rights Action Fund, is among those who would have been eligible to choose to end his own life under proposals being pushed in the state Legislature. Yet Hanson and others — from a former state Office of the...
In “We deserve right to die with dignity” [Opinion, Jan. 28], columnist Anne Michaud promotes physician-assisted suicide and says it’s gaining traction with the public. If this is true, it’s because the public is influenced by articles like hers. But public support doesn’t...
Stephanie Woodward is a graduate of Syracuse University College of Law and is the director of advocacy at the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester. By Stephanie Woodward Having been born with a physical disability, I am all too familiar with the overwhelming number of people who...