Ethan Geringer-Sameth
A bill that would let doctors provide medication to help end the lives of terminally ill patients is moving in the state’s lower chamber.
On Monday, the state Assembly’s health and codes committees advanced the legislation, known as the Medical Aid in Dying Act, representing two critical hurdles in the bill’s path to a full floor vote. The actions mark the first time that the legislation, which has been circulating in Albany for a decade, has moved beyond committee and set it up for a vote before the Assembly on Tuesday, according to its sponsor, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a Democrat representing parts of southern Westchester.
The law would allow patients with an incurable illness to request their physician prescribe a fatal dose of medicine when they believe the patient has fewer than six months to live. Last year, it gained the support of the doctors trade group, Medical Society of the State of New York, after lawmakers amended the legislation to allow physicians to opt out.
Other amendments last year sought to limit incentives for insurance companies to deny treatment after a person requests aid in dying. Despite the relatively large momentum and confidence expressed by the bill’s sponsors, the post-budget push was not enough to bring the bill to a floor vote in either chamber before the end of the session.
Last week, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, told fellow lawmakers that the legislation had enough support to pass on the floor in a closed-door meeting first reported by the New York Post. Passage in even one chamber would be an unprecedented step for the bill, which has faced opposition from the state’s Catholic Conference and some doctors over the years.
The new movement came hours before Gov. Kathy Hochul announced lawmakers had reached an agreement on a $254 billion state budget, nearly four weeks past the April 1 start of the fiscal year. Those negotiations had been held up by a series of policy proposals from Hochul related to the state’s discovery laws, involuntary commitment and mask-wearing that Democrats in the legislature had said could infringe civil liberties.
The bill, which needs to pass by both Legislative chambers and be signed by the governor, has not been scheduled to be heard in the Senate this session. But its movement in the Assembly has given supporters cause for optimism.
“The Assembly vote, as expected, will be an enormous boost to efforts in the Senate,” said the bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a West Side Democrat. “The best indicator of whether a bill gets a hearing in one house is if it gets a hearing and passes in the other house,” he added.