Doctors are meant to save life and offer relief from pain. Legislators and governors are supposed to make laws that are just and moral. The suffering and infirm should be offered hope, not the subtle, unspoken insinuation that his last days on earth are not worth it, that her presence, however brief and full of pain, is not a gift to those who have to stay behind.

Many Christians in New York State are holding their breaths, praying that Gov. Kathy Hochul will find wisdom and understanding and veto Bill S.138, for the “use of medication for medical aid in dying.” New York will be the 11th state to allow physician assisted death if she signs the bill. Nonetheless, one can make an educated guess about how the governor will vote unless God intervenes.

In the justification for the bill, the authors write that “The national debate that accompanied Ms. [Brittany] Maynard’s plight focused the nation on the desire of patients with a terminal illness to determine for themselves—how and when they die. … Patients should not be forced to relocate to another state or to leave the country to control how their lives end. Patients seek to die with dignity, on their own terms, typically in their own homes, surrounded by their family and other loved ones.” Britanny Maynard, a resident of California, ended her own life in 2014, in Portland, Ore., at the age of 29.

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