By Margot Russell

This is not an argument against mercy. It is an argument against pretending that power always uses mercy carefully.

There is a particular kind of dishonesty that shows up whenever assisted death is proposed by people in power. We are told this choice will remain humane, and rare. We are told to stop worrying about abuse because, by God, the government respects life.

But the moment the state authorizes death as a remedy, the argument is no longer about mercy. It becomes about eligibility. And eligibility, once introduced, never stays the same. I call it the big slide. In time, assisted death will jump on a burlap bag and head to the big slide at the closest park.

What troubles me about New York’s move is that it comes under the tenure of Kathy Hochul, a politician who disguises control as legislation. She is lock step with globalist and liberal policies that seem nonchalant about government corruption and assisted death but think making your morning eggs on a gas stove is a bridge too far. You don’t see the hypocrisy in that?

It is not that I am immune to unbearable suffering. Anyone who has lived long enough can understand that euthanasia may have a place in terminal illness. What troubles me is that the law does not exist in a vacuum.

It exists inside a culture that already struggles to value people who are sick, old, disabled, poor, or inconvenient. When you combine sanctioned death with a system that routinely fails at care, you do not get compassion. You get drift.

We do not have to speculate wildly about this. We have Canada.

Canada did not begin with a wide-open door. It began with the same assurances New Yorkers are hearing now. That story lasted only a few years before the definitions began to soften, then blur, then dissolve. Assisted death expanded beyond terminal illness to include chronic conditions, psychological suffering and despair.

And then something more disturbing happened. Poverty entered the conversation.

In Canada, documented cases emerged of people seeking assisted death not because they were dying, but because they were broke, isolated, and unable to find adequate housing or care. People applied because disability benefits did not cover rent. Because waitlists for support were endless. Because life had become an administrative maze with no exit other than the one now legally offered. Death became easier to access than help. Repeat that to yourself: death became easier than help.

That is the slide I fear most. Not the headline cases, but the quiet ones. The ones where a person begins to feel that choosing death is the responsible thing to do, the unselfish thing to do, the thing that relieves pressure on everyone else.

New York is not immune to this logic. In fact, New York is uniquely vulnerable to it. We are already a state where healthcare is rushed, housing is scarce, and the social safety net is stretched thin. We already struggle to care for people at the margins. We already normalize the idea that if you cannot keep up, you are the problem.

Here’s the path assisted death likes to take in the hands of an uncompassionate and controlling government: death will be presented as a choice, and the person who does not choose it will begin to feel unreasonable. Death will be presented as dignity. The person will be made to feel that staying alive through suffering is an embarrassment. This is how people are guided without ever being pushed.

As Canada has shown us, changes in assisted death regulations will not arrive with big headlines. Each step is defended as reasonable. Each expansion is framed as fairness. And each time, the line moves just a little farther from where it began.

This is why the slide matters more than the first step. You cannot unteach a society that death is a solution once it has been officially taught. It’s hard to pull back a permission that has already been granted.

This is not an argument against mercy. It is an argument against pretending that power always uses mercy carefully. New York is not just legalizing a choice. It is redefining the state’s relationship to human life. And once that relationship shifts, it does not shift back.

That is what history shows us. Canada shows us. And if we are honest, we already know it.