The New York State Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill that would legalize medically assisted suicide for terminally ill people, sending the measure to the state Senate.
The Medical Aid in Dying Act passed the Assembly by an 81-67 vote. The measure would allow a mentally competent adult who has been given six months or less to live the option of being prescribed lethal drugs.
The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, said she was motivated to introduce the legislation after her sister died of ovarian cancer.
“I don’t know whether she would have availed herself of this medication if she had the opportunity, but I can tell you that when she died, I wasn’t there,” Paulin, a Democrat, told reporters, according to the New York Post.
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“When she died, my other sisters were not there, and that was her wish,” she continued.
Democrat Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, a registered nurse, said the bill would allow people to die with dignity.
“If you don’t believe in it, then don’t avail yourself of that choice, but I think it is inhumane for us to tell people that we are forcing them to continue their suffering,” Reyes said.
Medically-assisted suicide has been gaining support in New York over the last decade, but opponents of the measure argue it is akin to state-sponsored assisted suicide.
“I watched my mom die. I watched my daughter die. And I know that for a fact that none of us are getting out of here alive. At some point or the other, we’re all going to go, but I don’t believe there should be a combination of six drugs offered to someone to end their life,” Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat, said on the Assembly floor, according to the New York Post.
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Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh, a Republican, said “each and every life has value” in arguing against the proposal.
“Progress may not be on a straight line and will look different to each of us, but this idea of giving up and dying is not excelsior, ever upward. It’s incredibly sad,” she said, referring to the state motto, “Excelsior” which means “ever upward.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said she would discuss the bill with senators, but she did not say whether she would bring it up for a floor vote.
“The conversation had begun in earnest last year. So I think we have time to look at it seriously,” she told reporters.
It is unclear if Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul would sign the measure if it passed the state legislature.
There are 10 U.S. states with legalized physician-assisted suicide. Several other countries, including Canada, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, have also legalized assisted suicide.
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