PENAL LAW PROVIDES A STATUTORY BASIS FOR PROSECUTING PHYSICIANS WHO PROVIDE AID IN DYING TO TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS; THE STATUTES DO NOT VIOLATE THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTION.

The First Department, in a comprehensive opinion by Justice Mazzarelli, determined Penal Law 120.30 and 125.15 provide a valid statutory basis to prosecute licensed physicians who provide aid-in-dying to terminally ill patients and the application of the statutes does not violate the New York Constitution:

The word “suicide” has a straightforward meaning and a dictionary is hardly necessary to construe the thrust of Penal Law sections 120.30 and 125.15. It is traditionally defined as “the act or instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally,” especially “by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary [11th ed 2003]). Whatever label one puts on the act that plaintiffs are asking us to permit, it unquestionably fits that literal description, since there is a direct causative link between the medication proposed to be administered by plaintiff physicians and their patients’ demise. Myers v Schneiderman, 2016 NY Slip Op 03457, 1st Dept 5-3-16

 

CRIMINAL LAW (PENAL LAW PROVIDES A STATUTORY BASIS FOR PROSECUTING PHYSICIANS WHO PROVE AID IN DYING TO TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS; THE STATUTES DO NOT VIOLATE THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTION)/SUICIDE (PENAL LAW PROVIDES A STATUTORY BASIS FOR PROSECUTING PHYSICIANS WHO PROVE AID IN DYING TO TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS; THE STATUTES DO NOT VIOLATE THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTION)/AID IN DYING  (PENAL LAW PROVIDES A STATUTORY BASIS FOR PROSECUTING PHYSICIANS WHO PROVE AID IN DYING TO TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS; THE STATUTES DO NOT VIOLATE THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTION)/PHYSICIANS (AID IN DYING, (PENAL LAW PROVIDES A STATUTORY BASIS FOR PROSECUTING PHYSICIANS WHO PROVE AID IN DYING TO TERMINALLY ILL PATIENTS; THE STATUTES DO NOT VIOLATE THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTION)