“This week, we unveiled new support for medical aid in dying among disability rights advocates, educating lawmakers that The Arc New York – one of the state’s leading organizations supporting New Yorkers with disabilities – supports the option,” said Compassion & Choices Senior New York Campaign Director Corinne Carey. “It is now clear that there is strong support for medical aid in dying – even in the disability community.

“Gene Hughes, a Utica resident who was injured in an automobile accident and has been in a wheelchair for 36 years, spending every one of those days fighting to maintains autonomy, traveled to Albany this week, joining with other disability rights advocates to tell lawmakers that their community supports the option and it’s time to pass the bill. Gene offered lawmakers the 16th reason in Compassion & Choices’ 50 reasons to pass Medical Aid in Dying Now campaign, Carey said.

“My life’s value cannot be diminished by medical aid in dying. To the contrary, my life would be empowered by passage of the Medical Aid in Dying Act. It would give me the autonomy I’ve worked so hard to maintain since my very first day in a wheelchair,” Hughes said.

“Every session day between now and June 2 – unless the Legislature passes the Medical Aid in Dying Act before then – we will release another compelling reason,” Carey said. “This week, in addition to Gene Hughes, we shared the story of Bernadette Hoppe, who suffered needlessly before she died last year while advocating for this option, and Susan Rahn, a young mother from Rochester who faces the same fate if lawmakers fail to act.”

* The 16th Reason to support New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act comes from Utica resident Gene Hughes. Gene said, “Allowing people with disabilities to make this decision at the end of life would empower us and legitimize our autonomy. We want control in life and we want control at the end of life” Gene says the Legislature should pass this bill so that at the end of my life, I have the autonomy that I fought so hard for since my first day in a wheelchair.

* The 17th Reason to support New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act comes from a brave Buffalo attorney, Bernadette Hoppe, who passed away last year from terminal cancer, even as she was urging New York lawmakers to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act. Shortly before her death, Bernadette wrote: “It is time to allow dying people to make very private, very personal and very difficult decision about when and how we die. I fear that it is too late for me. I will likely not live long enough to see New York enact the Medical Aid in Dying Act. but I hope and pray that the Legislature and Governor Cuomo will authorize medical aid in dying. If not for me, than for those who sadly, but inevitably, will follow me.” The Legislature should pass this bill in Bernadette’s honor so that no one’s final weeks are spent worrying about possible uncontrollable suffering at life’s end.

* The 18th Reason to support New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act comes from Rochester resident Susan Rahn. Susan, who has been living with metastatic breast cancer for nearly seven years, said: “Individuals with life-threatening illnesses can make autonomous decisions regarding their treatment every day. Patient decision must not be limited at the end of life. I have been monumentally lucky; however, one day that luck will run out. When it does, I want to know Albany did not let me down.” Susan says the Legislature should pass this bill so that no one is forced to be at someone else’s mercy for pain management and comfort care at the end of life after enduring countless treatments, procedures, and side effect in order to live as long as possible.

New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act (A.2694/S.3947) with 58 legislative sponsors, including the chairs of both the Assembly and Senate Health committees, is supported by: New York State Academy of Family Physicians, League of Women Voters of New York State, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York State Public Health Association, StateWide Senior Action Council, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Harlem United, Latino Commission on AIDS, and Latinos for Healthcare Equity, among many others.

Click here to read the full stories behind Reasons 1-18.

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