June 19, 2025

By Jim Towey

Mary and I were at a dinner party at a close friend’s house Friday undergoing the usual introductory rites when meeting other couples for the first time. All of us were at least 60 years old. A few were into their early 70’s. The conversation turned to the ubiquitous Washington, DC question, “What do you do?”, although for this age demographic, it was qualified with, “Or what did you do?” After I gave a 30-second treatment of the long and winding road of my professional life, one of the attendees, a retired college professor turned to me and said, “So you’re now one of the Pips.”

Pips? All I could think of were the trio of singers who backed up Gladys Knight. So I asked, “Pips? What’s a Pip?”

“A Previously-Important Person,” he replied.

He wasn’t using Pip as a pejorative. He was simply stating the obvious about my social status in Washington’s pecking order.

I had never heard that term before. Washington has so many people who are “formers” and I number among them. Some Pips were once VIPs (Very Important Persons). And I suppose some were also Pimps – Previously Important Monied Persons – that is, important individuals who made a ton of money off the labor of others. (Ok, I made Pimps up.)

Normal and natural

But the more I thought about his classification of Pips, the more I realized that becoming a Pip is part of a very natural and normal process that most people go through in life. Former teachers, managers, professional athletes, elected officials, police officers, and others who once wielded authority know this rite of passage well. So do parents. In the eyes of their children, they were once the two most important people in the world to them. But by the time of adulthood, other people have taken center stage in their lives. We parents then take on the role of Gladys Knight’s men had – harmonizing and contributing from the background, all the while ceding the spotlight and microphone to others.

Like Gladys, I could go “on and on”. My point is that categorizing people based on the so-called “importance” of their past social status requires a judgment we aren’t authorized to make. That is because each life created in the image of God is unique, precious, unrepeatable, and that a human being’s value is not measured by what they did or didn’t do in life, but rather, by who they are.

Measuring human worth

When you start measuring people by utilitarian standards, you succumb to a very worldly and materialistic view of humanity, where one person is worth more than another. You start asking whether the life of a person with Alzheimer’s is worth living or not. You start thinking that a disabled person is of lesser value than a so-called “normal” person.

Yes, we may have different gifts, responsibilities and spheres of influence in life, but our lives are of equal value. No one mistakes President Trump’s significance in world affairs with my own. But in God’s eyes, his life is of no greater intrinsic worth than mine or anyone’s.

Danger in New York

Which brings me to the dangerous public policy that the New York state legislature approved and sent to Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk for signature. It is the most reckless legalization of physician-assisted suicide ever adopted in the United States. If the governor signs this legislation, New York will be the first state with no waiting period.

So, if you wake up one morning feeling blue and have in hand confirmation from your primary care doctor that you’re terminally ill, you can book a telehealth appointment with a Compassion and Choices-recommended doctor anywhere in the country and have them write a prescription for you, available for pickup immediately. You could pick up your prescription for a lethal dose of medicine and end your own life before lunchtime. There is no safeguard against such a dark impulse.

New York’s legislation also has no residency requirement. This makes its law a de facto national one. Residents of the 38 states who prohibit this practice are now welcome to come receive help from strangers in ending their lives. Does the Big Apple really want that kind of tourism?

I have accompanied scores of terminally ill people in the last weeks of their lives. There were times when they wished they were dead, and days that followed when they were glad they weren’t because they had been touched by beauty and kindness or reconciled with a family member. Isn’t the solution to the challenges facing the terminally ill more compassionate care, earlier access to hospice, better pain management, and assistance in finding meaning in the midst of their existential concerns?

My advice to Governor Hochul is simple: veto this legislation! And put the legislators who voted for it on a midnight train to Georgia.

(The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Aging with Dignity and/or its Board of Directors.)