Family · Statewide · NY · September 25, 2026
New York's New Assisted-Suicide Law Yields ~20 Prescriptions, No Official Data
New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act took effect August 5, making it the 14th U.S. state to legalize the practice, according to Health and Me. Columbia University bioethics professor David Hoffman told the New York Post that conversations with doctors and hospitals indicate roughly 20 prescriptions for life-ending medication were issued in the law's first month, though the state Department of Health has not released official utilization figures. Under the law, patients must be adult New York residents, terminally ill with six months or less to live, mentally capable, and physically able to self-administer the medication after approval from two physicians and a five-day waiting period. Republican Assemblyman Andrew Molitor and state Sen. George Borrello criticized the lack of transparency and called for detailed reporting on patients' conditions and circumstances. Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald called end-of-life decisions 'deeply personal.' Critics, including Borrello, warned the law could expand over time as has occurred in Canada since that country legalized medical assistance in dying in 2016.
Source: Health and Me
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Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
Scripture teaches that human life belongs to God from beginning to end, and that no person has the right to hasten death for himself or assist another in doing so. Laws framing physician-assisted death as compassionate autonomy invert this truth, treating human life as something to be managed and disposed of rather than received as a gift under God's authority. The absence of transparent state data on who is dying, and why, should concern Christians regardless of where they live, since New York's law follows a pattern already seen in Canada: initial narrow eligibility followed by expansion. Bible-believing Christians should watch this closely, support hospice and palliative care that honors the dying without hastening death, and be ready to minister to families facing these choices with biblical clarity rather than cultural pressure.
Thou shalt not kill. — Exodus 20:13
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From the book
The family is a pre-political institution. It existed before the state, and it holds authority the state did not grant and cannot lawfully take. When Christians defend the family they are defending the first institution of God against the encroachment of Caesar.
— Chapter 18, “The Jurisdictional Mandate”
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