By Paul Carpentier, MD
Steve Levy recently wrote a concise opinion letter (“Governor Should Sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act,” Oct. 14, 2025). He did an amazingly good job of demonstrating several mistaken assumptions that many people hold about assisted suicide, and then focused on the key reason that assisted suicide keeps returning to New York legislators: follow the money.
His arguments for assisted suicide run counter to key principles in the practice of medicine.
First of all, I have had several wonderful pets, but I would never equate them to my siblings or to my patients.
Secondly, patients are not kept on ventilators against their will.
Thirdly, evaluations show that assisted suicide techniques are not without their own suffering and are not as glamorous as portrayed.
Next, does the public understand that New York already has the lowest use of hospice care in the country? The insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid might appreciate making that even less available, further pushing patients toward assisted suicide, which is much less costly than medical care. The insurers want it to be PHYSICIAN-assisted suicide so that they can term it as a “medical option.” Insurers are famous for stating that they will cover one available medical option and not another.
Finally, Mr. Levy aptly points out that assisted suicide is more about “putting people out of OUR misery” than out of “THEIR misery,” our financial misery, our inconvenience, protecting our inheritance, decreasing our healthcare expenditures. Ill patients quickly and subconsciously incorporate this sentiment as a “duty” to die.
As seen in other states and countries, people are sometimes approved for hastened death not because they want to die, but because they can’t afford the care they deserve.
Reducing this profound issue to a matter of dollars and cents only increases risks for the most vulnerable. This is a dangerous path, sending a chilling message to elderly, disabled, and seriously ill New Yorkers. But then again, money saving is why it keeps coming back to our legislators — despite the fact that the New York State Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that physician-assisted suicide is equivalent to murder.
That is not dignity, it is abandonment. By legal precedent and for the sake of civilized care of our ill and elderly, Governor Hochul should veto this bill.
Paul Carpentier, MD is a physician on Long Island.