As New York state considers legalising assisted suicide, a New York man, who admitted to murdering his parents because they “were losing their independence” as a result of old age, has called for the state to legalise assisted suicide.
Lorenz Kraus, who in September confessed on live television to murdering his parents and burying them in their garden, said “We need to widen up the law so that people can deal with these kind of problems in a humane way”. Kraus said that his parents’ old age and declining health made his decision necessary, and that he was acting out of “compassion” and “a sense of duty”.
Kraus admitted to strangling his father and choking his mother with a rope, claiming that his “concern for their misery was paramount” to his decision to murder them. Kraus continued, “There are 40 million boomers. They’re all going to go through these kinds of [age-related] problems”.
“I did my duty to my parents”, he said.
New York State recently voted in favour of legalising assisted suicide
Kraus’ confession comes in the midst of a debate around New York State legalising assisted suicide. The proposed legislation, which would provide the legal framework for terminally ill people to end their lives, recently passed, with 81 to 67 in the House of Representatives and 35 to 27 in the Senate.
Kraus’ comments regarding the rationale for allegedly murdering his parents echo statements made by proponents of the state’s assisted suicide Bill. The lead sponsor of the Bill, assembly member Amy Paulin, said the Bill would ease individuals’ “needless suffering”. Corinne Carey, a representative of the pro-assisted suicide campaign group Compassion & Choices, formerly known as the Hemlock Society, said those who voted in favour of the Bill are “leading with love”.
It is now up to the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, to decide whether or not to sign the Bill into law. Hochul has until the end of the year to sign. If she does, New York would become the thirteenth state in the United States to legalise assisted suicide.
Governor Hochul has previously launched several campaigns which aimed to reduce the suicide rate in New York, including a crisis hotline, and has helped fund and develop a number of youth suicide prevention programmes.
Assisted suicide laws tend to expand after being introduced
Euthanasia was first legalised in Canada in 2016 for those who may have had a reasonably foreseeable natural death as a result of a medical condition. This legislation was expanded in 2021 so that an individual’s death did not have to be reasonably foreseeable to access MAiD, known as Track 2.
As well as legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide on the grounds of mental health alone from March 2027 onwards, a Parliamentary committee in Canada recommended in 2023 that euthanasia be made available for children under certain conditions, and that it be made more easily available for prisoners.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “By his own admission, Lorenz Kraus ended his own parents’ lives and justified his action with the rationale that he was easing their suffering”.
“This is the same sort of rationale used by proponents of the legalisation of assisted suicide. It would have been no less of a tragedy if Kraus’ parents had ended their lives legally by way of assisted suicide”.
“Governor Hochul should heed the warnings from places where assisted suicide is already legal, like Canada, and refuse to sign this Bill into law. She has a good track record on suicide prevention, and it would be a shame to subvert this”.
“If Hochul were to sign the state’s assisted suicide Bill into law, it would represent a contradiction at the heart of her policy on suicide, where on one hand she is actively working to reduce the suicide rate, while on the other hand legislating to allow certain people to end their own lives through assisted suicide.
