Today marks a dark and deeply troubling day for Disabled New Yorkers. The passage of legislation to legalize assisted suicide in the Assembly sends a chilling message at a time when our healthcare systems are already failing the most vulnerable among us.

This vote comes at a time when accessing care is becoming increasingly difficult due to ongoing threats to Medicaid and Medicare and as the state undergoes a disastrous and disorganized transition to a single fiscal intermediary for the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP)— a move that has already disrupted care for thousands of disabled individuals. Compounding this crisis, we face looming cuts to essential services and supports from the federal government.

It is shameful that the Chair of the Health Committee has chosen to rush this bill through the legislative process while New York remains without a finalized state budget. Rather than ensuring stable funding and quality care for the most vulnerable – disabled people, seniors, and those living with chronic illness, the Legislature is now advancing policies that could pressure people to see death as their only option in the face of systemic neglect.

We need a government that values the lives of disabled people — one that invests in our care, our autonomy, and our dignity. Legalizing assisted suicide under these conditions is not compassion; it is abandonment. The focus must be on ensuring access to high-quality, equitable care for all — not offering a premature exit for those whom the system has failed.