On May 24, the Thursday after Shavuot, the New Jersey Assembly is expected to vote on assisted suicide (“Assisted Suicide’s ‘Slippery Slope’ Prompts Concern From Orthodox Jews,” March 22, 2018). This bill should be opposed for numerous reasons but I’m just going to list three.
- 1. The Torah deems suicide murder, and someone who can stop a murder (like you, the citizen) and doesn’t is in many ways like the murderer himself.
- 2. This bill will make fraud very easy. This entire process is only done in writing. There is not even a mechanism in place to make sure that no one forged someone else’s signature. The bill allows biased witnesses like the patient’s medical insurance company agent or the patient’s life insurance beneficiary to act as an “unbiased” witness.
- 3. This bill will make it easier for medical insurance companies to deny someone life-saving coverage in favor of a much cheaper lethal injection. This has already happened in states like California and Oregon where assisted suicide is legal.
This bill passed by only one vote last time in the assembly but did not have the votes to pass in the senate (it looked like they were one or two votes short); however, the pro-death side seems to have gained three seats in the senate. However, all hope is not lost, since the assembly bill only passed by one vote, and there were multiple changes in the assembly. Bergen County’s District 38 (Fair Lawn/Paramus/Bergenfield) recently lost two members of the assembly who both supported assisted suicide and they are to be replaced by Lisa Swain (former Fair Lawn mayor) and Chris Tully (former Bergenfield borough council). They both will be sworn in on May 17. If we can convince Swain and Tully to vote against assisted suicide we can successfully stop it. This can be combined with other potential switched votes like Passaic’s Clinton Calabrese (who just was appointed to replace a woman
who voted for assisted suicide). Clinton Calabrese can be reached at (201) 943-0615; however, the two Bergen County legislators don’t have office phones until after they are sworn in.
We have an opportunity to stop assisted suicide. If we fail to do so due to negligence or worse, what does that say about us?
Whoever saves one life, it’s as if they saved the entire world.
Avraham Sharaby
Lakewood
