NEW YORK — Aid-in-dying advocates pressured the state Legislature to pass a medical bill after similar measures passed in Maine and New Jersey in the last two months.
“Terminally ill New Yorkers deserve to have the same option to peacefully end needless suffering that Maine and New Jersey residents will soon have,” said Kim Callinan, the CEO of Compassion & Choices.
Like other laws, New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act would give mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live the option to request a doctor’s prescription for medication they could take to die in their sleep if their suffering becomes unbearable.
In the last five years, six states have passed laws allowing medical aid-in-dying: Maine, New Jersey, Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Colorado and California, according to Compassion & Choices.
