Governor Kahty Hochul on Wednesday said she reached an agreement with the state legislature to make medical aid in dying available to terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live.
The decision comes after careful reflection and deliberation with the bill’s sponsors, advocacy organizations and everyday New Yorkers who shared personal experiences, the governor said. The bill will be passed and signed in January, and the law will go into effect six months later.
“New York has long been a beacon of freedom, and now it is time we extend that freedom to terminally ill New Yorkers who want the right to die comfortably and on their own terms,” Hochul said in a statement. “My mother died of ALS, and I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and being powerless to stop it. Although this was an incredibly difficult decision, I ultimately determined that with the additional guardrails agreed upon with the legislature, this bill would allow New Yorkers to suffer less–to shorten not their lives, but their deaths.”
The bill, as passed by the legislature, had a number of protections in place to ensure that no patient was coerced into utilizing medical aid in dying and no doctor or religiously affiliated health facility was forced to offer medical aid in dying.
With today’s agreement, Hochul said additional guardrails will be implemented, including:
- A mandatory waiting period of 5 days between when a prescription is written and filled.
- An oral request by the patient for medical aid in dying must be recorded by video or audio.
- A mandatory mental health evaluation of the patient seeking medical aid in dying by a psychologist or psychiatrist.
- A prohibition against anyone who may benefit financially from the death of a patient from being eligible to serve as a witness to the oral request or an interpreter for the patient.
- Limiting the availability of medical aid in dying to New York residents.
- Requiring that the initial evaluation of a patient by a physician be in person.
- Allowing religiously-oriented home hospice providers to opt out of offering medical aid in dying.
- Ensuring that a violation of the law is defined as professional misconduct under the Education Law.
- Extending the effective date of the bill to six months after signing to allow the Department of Health to put into place regulations required to implement the law while also ensuring that health care facilities can properly prepare and train staff for compliance.
"This law is about compassion, family, love and respect for bodily autonomy," said Senior Campaign Director for Compassion & Choices NY/NJ Corinne Carey.
