New Lawsuits Filed to Overturn Assisted Suicide Laws in New York and Illinois

A coalition of disability rights and patient advocacy organizations filed federal lawsuits Thursday in New York and Illinois, challenging the states’ assisted suicide laws.

The lawsuits are based on the grounds that they discriminate against people with disabilities and violate the U.S. Constitution along with federal civil rights protections.

The simultaneous filings by the End Assisted Suicide coalition represent the fourth and fifth federal lawsuits in a multi-state effort that previously targeted assisted suicide statutes in California, Colorado and Delaware.

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Plaintiffs argue the laws single out individuals with disabilities and other vulnerable people for lethal prescriptions, placing them at risk of premature death rather than ensuring access to care, support and suicide prevention services. The suits claim violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.

“Assisted suicide laws in New York and Illinois create a separate and unequal system in which people with life-threatening disabilities are offered death instead of the support programs everyone else gets,” said Matt Vallière, executive director of the Institute for Patients’ Rights, a plaintiff organization. “These legal actions are about affirming that every person has inestimable value and dignity, regardless of age, disability, or prognosis, and ensuring that no one is treated as disposable under the law.”

In New York, organizational plaintiffs include the Institute for Patients’ Rights, Not Dead Yet, United Spinal Association, National Council on Independent Living, Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley, Regional Center for Independent Living, and Self-Initiated Living Options, Inc. Individual plaintiffs are Anita Cameron and José Hernández.

In Illinois, organizational plaintiffs include the Institute for Patients’ Rights, Not Dead Yet, United Spinal Association, National Council on Independent Living, Progress Center for Independent Living, and Chicago ADAPT.

Individual plaintiffs are Ebony Payne, Pam Heavens, and Dr. Nooshig Luz Salvador.José Hernández, a person with disabilities and member of United Spinal Association, recounted how his mother was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer when he was eight years old.

Doctors estimated she would live only six months.

“At the time, assisted suicide was not available, and thankfully so,” Hernández said. “Doctors did everything they could, her insurance paid for life-saving treatment, and my mother survived for 13 years. If she had chosen to end her life, I would have missed out on 13 years of goodnight kisses, home-cooked meals, and the opportunity to be raised by a mother who made me the strong man I am today.”

Ebony Payne, an Illinois plaintiff, said she joined the case after personal experiences that brought her close to death.

“I joined the lawsuit because of personal experiences that brought me really close to death and the people who I leaned on to do the right thing became the people to do the opposite,” Payne said. “The Illinois law is a trainwreck and is not what you expect from people who are obligated to do no harm.”

The lawsuits were announced at a disability community forum outside the United Nations in New York during the 19th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

New York plaintiffs are also seeking a temporary restraining order to halt enforcement of the law before its Aug. 5 effective date.

The Illinois law is scheduled to take effect Sept. 12.

The filings come amid ongoing Medicaid cuts, a national shortage of home care workers, and mounting pressures toward institutionalization that leave many people with disabilities without needed supports.

“When states legalize assisted suicide while simultaneously cutting home care and community-based services, they send a dangerous message: that death is a solution for disability and lack of support,” said Sharon Shapiro, a board member at the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled. “This is not ‘choice,’ it’s discrimination.”

Co-counsel Michael Bien of Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP said the aim is to secure a national precedent that affirms the equal protection and civil rights of people with disabilities in every state.

The legal actions seek to protect the inestimable value and dignity of every human life by rejecting policies that treat some individuals as disposable based on disability or prognosis.