An Open Letter to NY State Legislators
January 21, '26/ 3 Shvat 5786/
Dear New York State Legislator,
We hereby express our deepest objections to looming Assisted Suicide legislation, A9515 /S8835, "Chapter Amendments" demanded by Gov. Hochul to enable her to sign the Assisted Suicide bill for which the NY Legislature voted last year (S138/A136).
These objections are shared throughout all of our communities. See, for example, this broad based Rabbinic Statement and the OU statement.
We also know that together we can do better for the terminally ill than this - with advanced pain-control and appropriate emotional person-to-person support.
The Torah Perspective on Suicide:
In addressing the parameters of murder, Judaism unequivocally forbids suicide. The prohibition against suicide is one that extends to all Mankind. When G-d commanded Noach - to relay to all Mankind - the prohibition of murder (Genesis 9:5), He started by saying:
"... [For] Your [spilt] blood - {the taking of} your lives - I will demand justice ..."
Our Sages (in Midrash Rabbah (Beraishis Rabbah)) on that verse, as quoted by Rashi, received a Divine Tradition elucidating this verse as referring to the prohibition of suicide.
The severity of the prohibition of murder is such that even to kill a person on death's doorstep in order to save a young, healthy person with many healthy years ahead of them is unquestionably prohibited as murder, akin to any other form of murder.
Judaism deems murder so repugnant that even those loosely associated with it earn the stigma articulated by the Targum Yonoson Ben Uziel (in the elucidated Aramaic translation, dating back millennia), on The Ten Commandments, elucidates the verse "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13), as follows:
"My Nation, the Children of Yisrael: 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, ..."*{* loosely translated, N.L.}
From Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah (Code of Law), in The Laws of the Murderer and Preservation of Life, 1:15-16, we learn that if someone is capable of saving someone's else life and fails to do so, then the Torah deems it as if he actively "destroyed the entire world." (See Avot D'Rabbi Nosson 31:2.)
Consequently, if we fail to do everything within our power to stop this Assisted Suicide legislation - then it is we who would earn the dishonor of being deemed destroyers of the entire world.
As bad as murder is, institutionalizing any form of murder is infinitely worse.
Additionally, our objections are not limited to our opposition to murder in principle. This legislation poses many real and present dangers to us, practically speaking. The most vulnerable members of our communities, along with members of the general community - such as the mentally ill and the severely depressed - stand at gravest risk of victimization and exploitation under this legislation.
For example, the mentally ill are not protected before (due to the bill's weak definition of "capable") - and certainly not after (there is no provision to remove the poison from the hands of a person with dementia) - the lethal prescription is filled.
• This bill allows the doctor to suggest poison to a patient in distress. That enables the doctor to take advantage of a vulnerable patient who was just informed that they are going to die. The doctor would have the legal right to offer the forlorn patient an option of suicide. In that bleak circumstance, that's akin to directing - if not even coercing - the patient into taking the poison.
• There is much potential for fraud and abuse that is hardwired into this legislation explicitly, and far more so by omission of obviously necessary safeguards. For example, it doesn't even require checking the signatures for forgeries
• The bill forces both religious and conscientious objectors to collaborate in the killing process, by requiring them to forward medical records, thereby enabling the murder. A Jewish doctor had sued NJ over just such a provision - and lost. (See "Addendum: How Assisted Suicide In Fact Constitutes an Antireligious Edict," below.)
• This legislation also raises alarms of degrading care, particularly by medical staff, and insurance companies. As medical standards degrade, so will the medical care that the insurance covers.
• This bill redefines defines the word "Medication" - from something that is per se beneficial - to include poison. This mutation will fundamentally alter the way medicine is practiced, endangering many in the long-term.
• A doctor who multitasks in both healing and killing will never be the same doctor who goes to all lengths to save lives. We insist on our autonomy - the right to have a doctor who only heals. Under this legislation, will be unable to identify and choose doctors who never collaborate in killing.
• Legislation like this discourages religious people from entering the medical profession.
• It also proliferates distrust of medical professionals within our communities, distrust which has recently hit alarming, all time highs - both in our communities, and in the state at large.
• The Torah exhorts us that one sin leads to another. We observe this playing out in actual practice. In all other locations in which assisted suicide has passed, protections and other conditions always get changed - for the worse. This could occur by a court deciding that certain safeguards are undue burdens (a hazard that this bill's Severability Clause enables). It could also occur via future legislation weakening protections.
In reality, such legislative degradation is guaranteed - since proponents of this bill are unhappy with this compromise. Many controversial laws pass with certain conditions to appease some of the less intense opposition. However, generally, those conditions are subsequently voted away with little to no news coverage.
We beseech you, please do not partake in the wanton self-destruction of Civilization - please vote against all forms of Assisted-Suicide and/or Euthanasia. We cannot vote for those who advance this evil.
Our Sages observe:
"Some acquire their share in the World-To-Come in a single moment ..."
This may just be your Eternal Moment,
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director, Help Rescue Our Children