New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced her support for medical aid in dying. Writing in the Albany Times Union, the Democrat expressed her intent to sign legislation that allows for physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients as long as the New York State Legislature agrees to additional guardrails on the measure that passed both houses in June.
Those added protections include "a mandatory five-day waiting period to provide the patient the chance to change their mind," as well as requirements that requests be written and recorded.
The governor, who is Roman Catholic, wrote that she has reflected deeply on the controversial issue, saying that while many faiths believe "deliberately shortening one’s life violates the sanctity of life," she has come to see the matter as one of personal choice and one that is not about shortening life, "but rather about shortening dying."
Corrine Carey, the senior campaign director of Compassion & Choices, has been at the forefront of advocating for the bill. She says the legislation helps terminally ill New Yorkers gain agency over their own lives. She added that supporters will be watching the bill and its amendments closely, making sure it serves those in need.
"We will obviously be carefully monitoring whether these additional safeguards constitute barriers to care, and we will go back to the Legislature and say, 'you know, we've got to lift some of these additional restrictions, not to expand the bill, as opponents have said that we would always do, but to ensure that the bill that the Legislature passed was designed to give access to the broadest number of people."
If New York passes the Medical Aid in Dying Act, it would join roughly a dozen states, including Vermont and New Jersey, that allow for some form of assisted death at end of life.
