The article linked below was first published in The National Review, then on the blog of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/451145/ny-high-court-rejects-assisted-suicide-right
Wesley Smith points out that, while the NY Court of Appeals’ unanimous rejection of a constitutional right to so-called “Aid in Dying” was not unusual, the ruling made two important points.
One explicitly rejected the euphemisms used by assisted suicide advocates to pretend that a doctor’s prescribing drugs to someone and giving instructions for using them to cause death is not assisted suicide. The death, the court said, is indeed assisted suicide, which it pointed out, is prohibited by NY law. If the legislature wants to legalize assisted suicide, the court said, it will have to do it under its real name.
The other explained the difference between assisted suicide and voluntary withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment, a difference assisted suicide advocates attempt to blur. The right to decline such treatment, the court said, is not a “right to die”, but a right to reject unwanted bodily intrusions. There is no right to die, nor any right to “help” someone die.
True Dignity is overjoyed at this clear language. If people see it for what it truly is, the movement to legalize assisted suicide will surely lose any momentum it may ever have had.