On Monday, the New York State Senate approved a bill allowing people with incurable diagnoses to end their lives on their own terms. According to supporters of the bill, this will give New Yorkers a certain autonomy in the last days of their lives, writes The New York Times. It was passed on Monday evening by 35 votes to 27, mostly along party lines.
State Senator Pete Harckham, a Democrat from the Hudson Valley, spoke about his mother, who died a few months ago at the age of 98. “Her mind was sharp. She read two newspapers a day. She read four books a week. But her body let her down, she lost her dignity,” he said. “This bill will not help my mother, but it will help someone else's,” he said. “I vote 'yes.'”
The bill will now go to Governor Kathy Hochul for signature, and a representative from her office said she will consider it.
Eleven states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing so-called medical aid in dying. This practice is also available in several European countries and in Canada, which recently expanded its criteria to include people with incurable chronic diseases and disabilities.
The bill passed in New York is more narrowly focused and applies only to people suffering from incurable and irreversible diseases who have six months or less to live. Supporters of the bill argue that this distinction is key. “It's not about ending a person's life, it's about shortening their death,” said one of the bill's authors, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal. He called this measure a statement of New York's values, referring to Republican attempts to increase state control over people's bodies, including by restricting gender-affirming care and abortions: “It's about personal autonomy. It's about freedom. It's about the freedom to control your own body.”
According to the bill, New Yorkers who have received a prognosis confirmed by two doctors of six months or less to live will be able to end their lives with the help of medication. The request must be witnessed by two adults who will not inherit anything in the event of the patient's death. Doctors may refer the patient for a psychiatric evaluation if they deem it necessary.
The bill was first introduced ten years ago by Assembly Member Amy Paulin, a Democrat from Westchester, who chairs the health committee, at a time when few states were considering such measures. Paulin had her own reasons for favoring this measure: a year before, she had watched her sister die in a battle with cancer. She said the bill offers compassion to those in the most difficult circumstances.
In the years since the bill was introduced, advocates have been pushing the state legislature to take action. The group Compassion and Choices brought hundreds of terminally ill people and their families to Albany to lobby for the bill's passage. 28 of them died during the campaign. These advocates—most of them in their 70s, 80s, and 90s—have become a familiar presence in Albany over the years. Standing in the hallway between the legislative office building and the Capitol, they smile at passersby and hold signs describing the horrific and painful deaths experienced by terminally ill people.
The bill received support from a range of influential groups, including the New York State Bar Association, the State Psychiatric Association, the State Medical Society, and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Although the initiative was supported by some religious groups, including the Westchester synagogue Congregation B'nai Yisrael and the organization Catholics Vote Common Good, it was categorically opposed by the State Catholic Conference. Robert Bellafiore, a representative of this group, called the measure a “Pandora's box” that would undermine respect for life both in relation to the terminally ill and disabled, and more broadly.
Republicans who voted against it said the bill is typical of the Democrats' “wrong” priorities.