The bright orange and white signs told the story of the protesters holding them outside the United Nations: "We deserve care — not suicide."

"Suicide is not medical treatment."

"Fund services — not suicide."

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"Assisted suicide is dangerous and discriminatory."

Some stood, while others sat in wheelchairs during that June 11 protest. They represented End Assisted Suicide, a coalition of patient advocacy groups that maintain assisted suicide is inherently discriminatory against the rights of people with disabilities.

All had the same concern: that New York state's Medical Aid in Dying Act — scheduled to go into effect Aug. 5 — will, as their June 11 lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York reads, "allow providers to prescribe drugs — not to alleviate pain or suffering — but to cause the death of the patient and intentionally facilitate suicide."

The MAiD legislation itself, which makes New York the 13th U.S. state along with the District of Columbia to authorize physician-assisted suicide, was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul Feb. 6.

The governor did not, however, sign the legislation without some amendments, including increased religious liberty protection for Catholic facilities.

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Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, noted Hochul's concerns were shared by other politicians. One Democratic member of the state assembly who voted against the bill, he said, "told me her mother, who lives in Canada, was offered assisted suicide in the hospital for a non-terminal illness. ... They said, 'Well, we could offer you MAiD.' That opened her eyes, as an assembly member, to say, 'Whoa, wait a minute here.' So she was a no vote."

As to what passage of the legislation portends, "I think rather than look at the experience of other states for what we could expect, we all need to start looking at Canada — our immediate neighbour to the north," suggested Poust.

"Canada did this nationally — as opposed to the U.S. which is going state by state, because that's how our system works," he said. "But now that we're starting to get to a critical mass of states that have passed this — including the biggest ones, California; New York, Illinois — we're going to start seeing advocates push for expansions, like they did in Canada."

Poust said he expected legislation to expand MAiD to those with chronic illnesses or even mental illness. He pointed to Canada's expanding MAiD law, which will permit people with mental illness to request MAID unless Parliament acts before March 17, 2027 — though that expansion remains in limbo.

"That's my biggest concern," he said.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is explicit in its opposition to euthanasia or assisted suicide as MAiD. Regarding suicide, the Church teaches that human beings are "stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of," and for that reason suicide, or voluntary cooperation in it, is contrary to the love of God and the moral law. The Church also states, "Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable."

Matt Vallière, executive director of Patients Rights Action Fund and the Institute for Patients' Rights, said the impact of New York's law has yet to be felt.

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"We're going to have to watch and wait. Who knows who will be hurt by this," he said. "But as with other states, as they implement the law, you will see vulnerable people being harmed by this: whether it's through the discrimination of being offered assistance (in) suicide ... or not receiving equal suicide prevention care and services, based on people's disability status."

End Assisted Suicide has filed lawsuits in California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, and New York, with the aim of those cases eventually being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.