The following five part series is written with the hope that it will inform and motivate all New Yorkers in general and Staten islanders in particular regarding the End of Life Options Act. Please take the time to call and voice your opposition to your State representatives in the Senate and in the Assembly before this bill gets any traction. Staten Island Representatives’ phone numbers are found at the end of this post. Others from New York Staten Can be found here http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ and here http://www.nysenate.gov/

     Recently Staten Island’s State Senator Diane Savino along with State Senator Brad Hoylman introduced “The New York End-of-Life Options Act” in the New York State Senate. In the press release accompanying the bill’s introduction Senator Savino said “The option to end one’s suffering when facing the final stages of a terminal illness should be a basic human right, and not dependent upon one’s Zip code.”  In a recent op-ed published in the Staten Island Advance, Senator Savino shared that her own father’s painful death was part of her motivation for introducing the bill.

     There are presently over a dozen other states considering similar bills. Most are modeled after Oregon’s so called Death with Dignity Law. This Law was used by Brittany Maynard who moved to Oregon from California to legally take her life. Maynard took her life on November 1, 2014 to relieve her suffering from a brain tumor.

Let me begin by saying I am very empathetic to the desire of the Senator and others to relieve the suffering of others and in particular our own family members. I lost my father to the horrors of lung cancer when he was just 41 years of age. I have pastored the same local church on Staten Island for over 25 years. During that time I have been called upon to walk with many individuals and their families in and out of the church I pastor through their last days, many in the midst of great suffering. I have counseled them, prayed with them, cried with them. It has never been easy. Let me also say that I don’t always agree with the Senator but I have always respected her forthrightness. I don’t question her motives or motives of others regarding this matter. I think they are simply wrong on this issue.

• The premise of the bill is wrong.

Please notice I said the premise and not the intent. The intent of the bill is to relieve suffering, which is noble. The assumption is that you can end your own suffering through a prescription (the drug of choice is pentobarbital which is currently in short supply). While it is true that how one dies can mitigate suffering, death itself is not without suffering. Beyond what we know about the physical there is much that we don’t know about the mental and spiritual. When the heart stops and oxygen is cut off to the brain what does the brain feel?  When the soul leaves the body what does the soul experience? We just don’t know. What must be said is that the best this bill can provide is the appearance of someone going peacefully. We can’t be sure that this is actually true and for that reason alone I oppose the bill. The appearance of them going peacefully might make us feel good but this is not about us; it is about the terminally ill isn’t it? It is also noteworthy that the pain-killing drugs presently available to the medical profession alleviate to a great degree the issue of intense suffering in the terminally ill.

Something else bothers me greatly about this particular point. This drug, pentobarbital, is used for something else. It is the drug used for the death penalty’s lethal injection.  In that case it is administered by a doctor who monitors the recipient, not just to ensure his/her death, but to do everything possible to make sure that he/she does not suffer. If this drug is so successful in allowing someone to “go peacefully” why is there a need to medically monitor those individuals who receive it to carry out their death sentence?  This bill allows for the pill to be given to the individual and for them to take it on their own with no doctor present. Why are we more concerned about the possible suffering of a death row inmate than a terminally ill person? There is something counter-intuitive about this.

Tomorrow – Reasons 2-3 –

Andrew J. Lanza, State Senator
24th District
3845 Richmond Avenue  Island, NY 10312
Phone: 718-984-5151
Fax: 718-984-5737
http://www.nyssenate24.com/24/default.aspx

Diane Savino, State Senator
23rd District
36 Richmond Terrace, Room 112
Staten Island, NY 10301
Phone: 718-727-9406
Fax: 718-727- 9426
http://www.nyssenate23.com/

Nicole Malliotakis, Assemblywoman
60th District
586B Midland Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10306
Phone: 718-667-5891
Fax: 718-667-5879
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=060

Matthew Titone, Assemblyman
61st District
853 Forest Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10310
Phone: 718-442-9932
Fax 718-442-9942
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=061

Joseph Borrelli, State Assemblyman
62nd District
101 Tyrellan Avenue Suite 200
Staten Island, NY 10309
Phone: 718-967-5194
Fax: 718- 967-5282
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=062

Michael Cusick, Assemblyman
63rd District
1911 Richmond Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10314
Phone: 718-370-1384
Fax: 718-370-2543
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=063