NY bill granting minors full power over medical decisions withdrawn. Defeat, or tactical retreat?

A bill that has been described as “the worst children's health bill ever” has been stricken in Albany, after the Senator who sponsored it, Rachel May, moved to withdraw it from the Senate docket.

The bill would have granted children the right to make medical decisions for themselves, without parental involvement, as long as they appeared to comprehend what was involved.

Intentionally misleading?

The one-line description of Senate Bill S8352 that appears on the NY Senate website states that it:

Allows certain minors to consent to certain medical, dental, health, and hospital services.

However, there is no evidence in the text of the bill itself that ability to give consent will be confined only to “certain” minors, although many lawmakers poised to vote on the law had allegedly gained the impression that it would only apply to “homeless” children.

In an undefined state of emergency, anything goes

Clicking on the link on the Senate's website to access the entire bill currently leads nowhere, now that the bill has been stricken, but the full text still exists in the internet archive.

The bill includes a provision that, in a state of “emergency,” parents may be totally sidelined when it comes to treating their children:

Medical, dental, health, and hospital services may be rendered to persons of any age without the consent of a parent, legal guardian or person possessing a lawful order of custody when, in the practitioner's judgment, an emergency exists and the person is in immediate need of medical attention and an attempt to secure consent would result in delay of treatment which would increase the risk to the person's life or health.

Nowhere in the bill is an emergency defined. Nor does the bill specify how much of an increased risk will be needed to justify “emergency” treatment.

Can minors truly give informed consent?

The bill would also seek to place a child in control of his or her health treatment, regardless of any state of emergency:

Any person, including a minor, who comprehends the need for, the nature of, and the reasonably foreseeable risks and benefits involved in any contemplated medical, dental, health, and/or hospital services, and any alternatives thereto, may give effective consent to such services for themself, and the consent of no other person shall be necessary.

The bill does not describe any mechanism for determining the level of comprehension of the child concerned.

Brought to you by the Letter P(fizer)

It appears that a large and well-organized public campaign was effective in exerting pressure on New York lawmakers, and many are now celebrating the decision of Senator May to withdraw the bill. However, it seems likely that the bill will resurface next January with different wording.

Meanwhile, children continue to be bombarded by messaging that promotes medical interventions such as COVID shots, in the media, in schools, and elsewhere.

Teachers tempted to abuse their positions

So far, efforts to pass legislation to require students in NY schools to receive COVID shots have failed. Many shots are mandated, but not all those that the CDC recommends.

At times, pressure on children comes from teachers, especially if they fear that their students will infect them with a dangerous virus. The motives of a New York teacher (with no medical credentials) who administered a COVID shot to a student herself are unclear, but the case illustrated the potential for teachers to abuse their position in the area of health; Laura Parker Russo pled guilty to a misdemeanor in a plea bargain and ended up avoiding prison time, despite giving her 17-year-old student a J&J shot without his parents' consent.

They want to bring up your children

In her State of the State Address in January this year, Governor Hochul insisted that,

The Legislature makes the determination in consultation with health experts … We're not talking about mandating the COVID vaccine in schools at this time.

However, in his speech at a freedom rally in Albany on May 7, 2024, Dr. James Lyons-Weiler of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge insisted that,

Their goal is that parents do not have a say over the biological realities of their children.