(The Center Square) — New York could become the next state to authorize physicians to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients, under a Democratic-led proposal working its way through the legislative process.
Legislation approved Tuesday by the state Assembly on an 81-67 vote would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults who have been given a prognosis of six months or less to live the ability to request medication to end their lives.
“This is about giving individuals autonomy, dignity and choice at the end of their lives,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat, said in a statement. “This legislation will give people the ability to choose to go peacefully in their sleep, and ensure there are critical safeguards in place.”
Critics of medical aid in dying laws, including medical and religious groups and advocates for those with disabilities, say misdiagnoses are common. They have urged lawmakers not to approve the practice.
Terminally ill patients suffer from depression, they noted, and may irrationally decide to end their lives.
Others argue that legalizing physician-assisted suicide would encourage suicide among those suffering from depression and other mental health issues.
“Each and every life has value,” state Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, R-Saratoga, said Tuesday remarks on the House floor, urging fellow lawmakers to reject the proposal. “Progress may not be on a straight line and will look different to each of us, but this idea of giving up and dying is not excelsior, ever upward. It’s incredibly sad.”
Backers of the proposal, which must also pass the state Senate and survive Gov. Kathy Hochul’s veto pen, said it includes safeguards that would require patients to make verbal requests for a doctor’s intervention and get a written request signed by two witnesses. At least two physicians would need to certify that the patient seeking access to lethal medicine is suffering from an incurable, irreversible condition.
“Faced with a terminal diagnosis, when no curative treatment options exist, New Yorkers deserve the full range of options for care at the end of life,” the bill’s sponsors wrote in a summary. “Authorizing the full range of end-of-life options, including medical aid in dying, allows people to engage in open conversations with their healthcare providers, their loved ones and their faith leaders about the end of life experience they want.”
Health care insurers would be banned from recommending or providing information on medical aid in dying to patients, including alongside denial of coverage notices for other treatments, under the proposal.
The plan would also shield physicians and patients from any legal ramifications from medical aid-in-dying procedures.
Medical aid-in-dying is already permitted in 10 states, including New Jersey, Vermont and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C., according to the group Compassionate Choices. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1997 left the issue largely up to states. Thirty-seven states have since banned the practice, either at the ballot box or by legislative act.
