New York's governor says the state should sometimes help hasten death—carefully. In a Wednesday op-ed for the Albany Times Union, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she'll sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act once lawmakers return to Albany and approve added safeguards she requested. The bill would let mentally competent, terminally ill adults with fewer than six months to live obtain medication from a doctor to end their lives. Hochul frames it as a matter of "shortening dying, not shortening life," and says government should protect, not interfere with, profoundly personal medical decisions.
Hochul details her shift from caution to support, citing emotional testimony from New Yorkers and the death of her own mother from ALS. She also acknowledges religious objections, as within her own Catholic faith, but writes, "I do not believe that in every instance condemning someone to excruciating pain and suffering preserves the dignity and sanctity of life. ... God is merciful and compassionate, and so must we be. This includes permitting a merciful option to those facing the unimaginable and searching for comfort in their final months in this life."
She stresses that participation is voluntary: individual doctors and religiously affiliated facilities will be allowed to opt out. Hochul writes that her proposed "guardrails," which go beyond those in the legislature's original bill, require that a physician confirm the patient is within six months of death and a psychologist or psychiatrist confirm the patient is capable of making the decision and isn't being coerced. Patients must submit both written and recorded oral requests, wait five days before receiving the medication, and use witnesses who cannot benefit financially from their deaths. "Finally, this is a right afforded to New Yorkers only," she adds.
The AP reports New York will join a dozen other states and the District of Columbia in allowing medically assisted suicide. Illinois on Friday joined that list.
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