Long Island medical community faces questions on doctor assisted suicide bill

New York is closer than ever to legalizing medically assisted suicide for terminally ill individuals, but it remains unclear how many Long Island physicians will help patients end their own life.

After languishing in legislative purgatory for more than a decade, State Assembly lawmakers passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act last week. The measure allows mentally capable adults who have six months or less to live to request life-ending medication prescribed from a physician.

The bill now moves to the Democratic-controlled State Senate where lawmakers said there’s increasing support for its passage. The bill, which does not mandate that medical providers provide life-ending care, would require the signature of Gov. Kathy Hochul before becoming law.

And while the policymaking body of the Medical Society of the State of New York, which represents 20,000 physicians, voted overwhelmingly last month to support the measure and allow its members to provide end-of-life treatment, how the bill could potentially work on Long Island remains somewhat murky.

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

• New York is closer than ever to legalizing medically assisted suicide for terminally ill individuals, but it remains unclear how many Long Island physicians will help patients end their own life.
• State Assembly lawmakers passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act last week.
• The measure allows mentally capable adults who have six months or less to live to request life-ending medication prescribed from a physician.

Giving patients ‘autonomy’

Representatives for most of the regions hospitals, including Northwell Health, NYU Langone Health, Mount Sinai-South Nassau and Stony Brook University Hospital, each declined to discuss whether they would permit their doctors to perform physician-assisted suicide or did not respond to requests for comment.

Only Catholic Health Systems, which has six hospitals on the island, behind only Northwell, responded to say they opposed the measure.

“We all share the same goal: to ensure that no one suffers needlessly at the end of life, and that every person is allowed to die with dignity,” said Dr. Patrick O’Shaughnessy, president and chief executive of Catholic Health. “A more ethical and compassionate path is through hospice and palliative care. Unfortunately, New York State has the lowest utilization rate for hospice services in the nation. Before taking the radical step of legalizing physician-assisted suicide, we should first address the barriers to hospice access and invest in solutions that truly honor the long-standing oath to do no harm.”

A Catholic Health spokeswoman said it was “premature to speculate” how the bill will be administered and if they’d prevent their doctors from performing doctor-assisted suicide.

Dr. Ani Bodoutchian, a family medicine physician in West Babylon, past president of the Suffolk County Medical Society and backer of the legislation, speculated that the majority of doctors across the region will be willing to provide end-of-life care if requested by a patient. Bodoutchian said employers, including major health systems, are unlikely interfere with their physicians following the wishes of their patients.

“We’re giving our patients autonomy,” said Bodoutchian, adding that she’d be willing to administer the medication if the bill passes. “We’re giving people that are dying their final wish to turn around and say, ‘I want all my family to be around me on my last day.’ And to give everybody closure, because there are things that palliative care cannot do.”

Dr. Ronald Menzin, a member and past president of the Nassau County Medical Society, said there will be likely be a split among some in the medical community on participating in the treatment.

“It’s hard for me to say there won’t be doctors who will opt out,” Menzin said. “But I’m certain that there’ll be a lot of doctors that will opt in. There’ll be some doctors who will say, ‘I don’t want to be part of it.’ And there’ll be some pharmacists who don’t want to be part of it. But that’s OK.”

End-of-life treatment, Menzin said, will likely be administered at home, a hospital or in a home hospice setting.

Multiple Long Island based hospice centers did not respond to requests for comment from Newsday on whether they’d allow end-of-life treatment at their facilities.

But Calvary Hospital, which is part of the Archdiocese of New York and provides home hospice care to terminally ill patients on Long Island, said in a statement that “providing patients with literal poison is not consistent” with their mission.

‘Momentum’ toward passage

The Medical Aid in Dying Act would allow people 18 or older with a medically confirmed terminal illness and who have six months or less to live to take a cocktail of life-ending pharmaceuticals from a physician. Two doctors would have to confirm the prognosis. A candidate would have to be mentally competent to make an informed decision without being coerced and be able to self-administer and ingest the medication.

Some recent national and statewide polls showed support for doctor-assisted suicide legislation with somewhat less support on Long Island.

Ten states, including New Jersey, Vermont and Maine, along with Washington, D.C., have legalized similar measures, while others are considering it, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan organization.

Among the bill’s wide range of supporters are the New York Nurses Association, the State Bar Association, New York State Psychiatric Association and the New York State National Organization for Women.

The Act was first introduced in Albany in 2016 but this year was the first time it came up for a vote.

Mike Murphy, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, said the caucus will likely conference on the bill, whose lead sponsor is State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan).

“There has been much more momentum the last few years,” Murphy said of the legislation’s potential passage.

The Senate bill has 24 co-sponsors, all Democrats, although none from Long Island.

Sen. Siela Bynoe, one of the island’s two Democratic state senators, said she chose not to co-sponsor the bill “because of my concerns about the potential ramifications of this legislation. My apprehension stems from the belief that this bill may disproportionately affect vulnerable communities that already encounter challenges, including poverty and discrimination, in accessing healthcare.”

Sen. Monica Martinez of Brentwood, in a statement, said, “Decisions to allow the terminally ill to seek medical aid in dying must be made with compassion and out of respect for their humanity. Right now, there are too many gaps in the legislation for me to be confident that will always be the case for people in their final stages of life.”

A Hochul spokeswoman said the governor would review the legislation if it reaches her desk but declined to say if she supports the measure.

Dr. Rachelle Brilliant, president of the 6,000-member New York State Academy of Family Physicians, which has supported the legislation since 2017, said the Senate has an opportunity to save New Yorkers with terminal illnesses from unnecessary pain and suffering.

“We as physicians have an obligation to reduce suffering,” Brilliant said during a Tuesday news conference in Albany in support of the legislation. “And to care for our patients with compassion and respect for human dignity.”

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.

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