Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday she’ll sign a controversial doctor-assisted suicide bill – capping a years-long battle over making New York a state that allows terminally ill people to take their own lives.
Hochul, in a Times Union op-ed, cast the decision to approve the Medical Aid in Dying Act as a civil rights issue that protects a deeply personal choice.
“The Medical Aid in Dying Act will afford terminally ill New Yorkers the right to spend their final days not under sterile hospital lights but with sunlight streaming through their bedroom window,” she wrote.
“The right to spend their final days not hearing the droning hum of hospital machines but instead the laughter of their grandkids echoing in the next room. The right to tell their family they love them and be able to hear those precious words in return.”
A highly contentious fight led up to the bill’s razor-thin passage by the state Legislature in June, with many religious and disability rights activists in opposition.
The bill will allow individual doctors and religiously affiliated health facilities to decline to offer assisted suicide, in addition to protections for family members, caregivers and doctors, Hochul wrote.
Hochul also pointed out the legislation includes a five-day mandatory waiting period for patients to change their minds.
“Finally, this is a right afforded to New Yorkers only,” she wrote.
“These are fundamental protections to ensure vulnerable people aren’t pressured, misled or left without alternatives.”
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