A bill to allow medically assisted suicide passed the New York state Assembly on Tuesday, but still faces opposition from religious leaders and other hurdles that could prevent it from being enacted.
The Medical Aid in Dying measure passed 81-67 after more than four hours of debate, with more than 10 Democrats joining the minority Republicans in voting no.
It’s still unclear whether it will be considered by the state Senate or whether Gov. Kathy Hochul supports it.
Ten other states allow similar practices, including Oregon, which legalized medically assisted suicide in 1997.
The bill's supporters say it offers a compassionate choice for people who are in pain at the end of their lives. Advocates include physicians and terminally ill cancer patients, as well as people whose spouses and siblings suffered in their final moments.
Assemblymember Amy Paulin, a Democrat from Westchester County who sponsored the bill, said she did so in honor of a sister who died of ovarian cancer.
“The lasting memory I have of my sister is shouting in pain,” Paulin said at a press conference. “She might have chosen this or not — but she would've had a choice.”
Some religious leaders, including the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, said the bill contained inadequate safeguards. Robert Bellafiore, a spokesperson for the New York State Catholic Conference, said the measure was “state-sanctioned suicide.”
“It tells young people, who everyone knows are in the midst of an unprecedented mental health crisis, that life is disposable and that it’s OK to end your life if you see no hope,” Bellafiore said. “It turns medicine on its head from a healing profession into a killing one.”
The bill requires two physicians to certify that a patient has an irreversible, incurable illness or condition with a prognosis of six months or less to live. Two witnesses who aren’t related to the patient, aren’t in line for an inheritance and don’t work for a nursing home where a patient receives care must also sign as witnesses to the patient’s written request.
Corinne Carey, senior campaign director for the advocacy group Compassion and Choices, said there are safeguards in the legislation to prevent any kind of coercion.
“Throughout the process, it is the patient who is in control. They ingest the medication on their own, and they have the ability to change their mind at any point,” Carey said.
Max Rodriguez of the Center for Disability Rights said people would feel coercive pressure if the option of aid in dying were on the table. He also feared the law could be broadened over time.
“Really, we just need to make sure that we're not opening Pandora's box,” he said. “There is the potential for it to be expanded outside of a terminal diagnosis.”
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, explained that while he personally supports the bill, he didn’t bring it to the floor until Paulin demonstrated there were sufficient votes to ensure its passage.
That took years of persistent advocacy, and many lawmakers said they came to support the bill due to personal experiences with dying loved ones.
Assemblymember Al Taylor, a Democrat from Harlem, said he changed his position after watching his father die over the course of three years. Assemblymember Anna Kelles, a Democrat from Ithaca, said she “had to watch my father shrivel up” in the last months of his life when a tumor prevented him from eating. She wept at a rally before voting for the bill on the chamber floor.
Several Republicans raised concerns about what they said were a lack of safeguards in the legislation. Assemblymember Michal Durso of Long Island said there was nothing in the bill that would prevent “doctor shopping” for patients to find physicians willing to prescribe life-ending drugs.
Assemblymember Mary Beth Walsh, a Republican from Saratoga County, said she was concerned that there were no controls on life-ending drugs once they are prescribed. She said there should be more follow-up check-ins with patients.
Hochul’s spokesperson, Avi Small, said the Democratic governor would review the bill if passed. Small didn’t say if the governor had any opinion on the topic.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters Tuesday that she would discuss whether the bill has the votes to pass with her colleagues. The Yonkers Democrat controls which legislation comes to a vote in her Democrat-controlled chamber.
The measure's supporters include Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal of Manhattan, who said he was working to build support for the bill among his colleagues. He said the presence of advocates at the Capitol is important in changing minds.
Those advocates include people like Arelis Torres and Dawn Fishman, a couple from Astoria. Both have been coming to Albany to buttonhole legislators in a pedestrian tunnel near the Capitol for several years and share their story.
Fishman was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago. She is in remission, but said her treatment made her realize that she would want the option of ending her life if the disease returns and there are no remaining effective therapies.
Torres said she sees the legislation as a matter of bodily autonomy.
“My wife and I had to go to Canada to marry because it wasn't legal here,” she said. “We didn't want the same thing to be the case if her cancer returns and we have to go somewhere else where she can have that option. So we are both fighting for it here.”
The National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988, or by chatting online.
