Looming In NY, Any Day: NY State Legislature To Vote on DOCTORS LEGALLY Helping Kill Their Patients

 BS"D

January 19, '26/ Parshas Bo El Pharaoh

Looming In NY, Any Day: NY State Legislature To Vote on  DOCTORS LEGALLY Helping Kill Their Patients

Dear Editor,

 

Everyone in the esteemed NY tzibbur over 17 is beseeched to please call their own state senator and assembly member NOW, to demand that they vote AGAINST bills A9515 and S8835. Those are Gov. Hochul's "Chapter Amendments" to the Assisted Suicide bill (voted on in June). Their passage would enable passage of  Assisted Suicide and Stealth-Euthanasia in NY.

Prominent Rabbonim have urged us to do all we can to stop this murderous legislation from passing. Tell your reps that we cannot vote for anyone who in any manner advances the institutionalization of murder.

Call now: NY State Senate: (518) 455-2800 and NY State Assembly: (518) 455-4100, open Mon - Fri. 9-5.

Even if you don’t know their names, they'll direct you.  Urge every Republican rep to ensure that their leadership "enforce Party Discipline" - to ensure every Republican votes NO.

•• Important clarification for those misled by reports to the contrary:  Despite mistaken news reports [confusing Governor Hochul’s “pledge” to sign Assisted Suicide after Chapter Amendments S8835 and A9195 pass, with her actually signing it into law] - Assisted Suicide has NOT become law yet.*

(* In order for the original Assisted Suicide Bill to become law, it must be signed within 30 days of delivery to the Governor, which occurred on Dec. 31, 2025.)

Governor Hochul’s Amendments make this lethal legislation more passable by making it ostensibly "safer."  Those Amendments just  passed the Senate Rules Committee last week - making it possible for the full Senate to vote on the bill, S8835, any day now.

 

The Amendment bill in the Assembly, A9195, has been sitting in the Assembly Health Committee, and is not scheduled for a vote this week.  However, it is possible that could change. If it doesn’t change, it is likely that they will vote on it in the Assembly Health Committee - and in the full Assembly - next week, Parshas BeShalach.

 

The Governor pledged that IF S8835 and A9515 pass, she will sign  Assisted-Suicide into Law.  IF either S8835 or A9515 do not pass, it's extremely unlikely that she will sign it into Law.

 

Thus, THE only realistic way to stop Assisted Suicide now is to stop A9515 and S8835 from passing.

 

It's crucial to realize that even with Governor Hochul’s proposed changes in A9515 and S8835, this legislation would not only “legitimize” assisted suicide - as terrible as that is from the Torah perspective - it would also enable the outright homicide of vulnerable individuals who do not wish to die.

The legislators supporting this need to realize that we see through the "Autonomy" mantra. This legislation undermines personal autonomy in the very name of advancing it.

This is due to the remaining loopholes, and due to the absence of a non-severability clause - which would disable the entire bill if any part is declared void - 

בטלה מקצתה בטלה כולה.  

 

In a bill without a non-severability clause, even meaningful protections are ultimately worthless, because they can be easily eliminated over time by an activist court - leaving the bill's killing machinery operating at full speed, without those protections.

Thus, these protections in the Amendments ultimately serve to "Aid in Killing," by enabling initial passage of Assisted Suicide. They do not at all protect the vulnerable - in the long term - because the protections/amendments will likely be removed from the bill, over time.  This is being done in other places that have passed such bills, due to the absence of a non-severability clause, as explained above, or by subsequent legislation, with little fanfare.

Accordingly, "the Road to Assisted-Suicide is Paved with Amendment Protections."

 

To for a copy of the broad-based Rabbinic statement urging everyone to do what they can to stop such legislation, please email TorahJewsForDecency@gmail.com.

Also realize that even if it passes R"L, the more controversial we make Assisted Suicide/ Stealth Euthanasia, the harder it will be to implement, in the face of an uncooperative community.

May we merit the Ultimate Redemption in the merit of countering its' impediments.

Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,

Executive Director,

Help Rescue Our Children

845-642-1679

Monsey, NY