Since 2022, Compassion & Choices New York has hosted a large-scale installation in the Legislative Office Building of the New York State Capitol Complex explaining why the legislature should expand end-of-life options and pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act. You can view each of the 8 foot by 4 foot boards as displayed in January 2024 by clicking the link below:
2024 Legislative Office Building Display Boards (PDF)
Quick Resources:
Welcome!
Compassion & Choices New York’s core mission is to support, educate and empower healthcare consumers to demand the best possible end-of-life care that respects patients’ autonomy. Our legislative agenda includes, but is not limited to, advocating for the New York Medical Aid in Dying Act, which would allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults to have the option of medical aid in dying to peacefully end intolerable suffering when no other option will provide relief.
Watch this space for resources and facts about medical aid in dying, and the latest updates in our campaign to bring this compassionate option to terminally ill New Yorkers.
With gratitude,
Corinne Carey
Senior Campaign Director
Medical aid in dying is optional.
Optional for patients and optional for doctors. No person is required to use it. No doctor is mandated to provide it. It is illegal to force someone to use it.
Medical aid in dying includes strict eligibility requirements.
A patient must be an adult, have six months or less to live, be able to make an informed health care decision and be able to take the medication themselves.
The New York Medical Aid in Dying Act includes more than a dozen safeguards.
Two doctors must confirm that the patient has six months or less to live — due to terminal illness, not because of age or disability. Two doctors and two independent witnesses must confirm that no coercion exists.
Medical aid in dying is a medical practice proven by decades of experience in authorized states.
In more than 20 years of experience since the first law was enacted in Oregon, and an additional 40+ years of combined evidence and cumulative data from the laws passed in other jurisdictions there is not a single substantiated case of abuse or coercion nor any civil or criminal charges filed related to the practice. Not one.
Medical aid in dying gives patients autonomy.
This law would put the dying person in charge. Only they can request the medication. They take it themselves — no one can administer the medication to them. And they can change their mind at any time. Medical aid in dying improves end-of-life care. Studies show palliative (“comfort”) care gets better for patients — and families — in states with medical aid in dying.
Medical aid in dying helps far more people than those who choose to use it.
Research shows just having medical aid in dying as an option relieves fear and anxiety — even for those who never choose the option.
New York Doctors support medical aid in dying.
A 2019 Medscape survey reported that when New York physicians learned about how medical aid in dying would be implemented in the bill before the state Legislature, their level of support jumped 18 points, from a 30-point margin (56%–26%) in support to a 48-point margin (67%–19%) in support.
Learn more about New York physicians’ support for medical aid in dying:
New Yorkers want medical aid in dying. By a more than a 2–1 margin (63%–29%) New York voters support, “allowing doctors to legally prescribe lethal drugs to help terminally ill patients end their own lives.” ( Quinnipiac, 2018)
Medical aid in dying is currently authorized in eleven jurisdictions.
They include Oregon (1994), Washington (2008), Montana (2009), California (2015), Colorado (2016), the District of Columbia (2016), Hawai‘i (2018), Maine (2019), New Mexico (2021), and our neighbors in Vermont (2013) and New Jersey (2019).
See our Medical Aid in Dying State Utilization Reports here (Last updated Feb. 1, 2021).
Document: Organizational Memos of Support (as of April 25, 2022)
Below you will find a list of campaign materials that will be updated throughout New York’s 2021/2022 legislative session, sorted with the most recently published items displayed first.
Each week that New York State lawmakers were in session in 2022, Compassion & Choices New York provides a deep dive into each of the issues surrounding New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act. You can find each of these weekly communications with lawmakers here:
See statewide polling that shows a majority of New Yorkers want access to medical aid in dying as an end-of-life care option.
Educational Display: Pass the New York Medical Aid in Dying Act NOW!View our educational display exhibited to lawmakers and visitors at Albany's Legislative Office Building.
60 Reasons To Support New York’s Medical Aid in Dying ActThe 2020 legislative postponement occurred in the midst of Compassion & Choices’ 50 Reasons To Support New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act campaign. Read the 20 stories published while the legislature was in session, and watch this space for 40 more reasons throughout 2021.
Signature Song: "This Is Your Show"Presenting… This Is Your Show, an energetic and inspirational song written and composed exclusively for Compassion & Choices. This Is Your Show creates new avenues for sharing positive, joyful messages about personal empowerment, autonomy, gratitude and planning for an end-of-life experience aligned with YOUR values and priorities.
Dr. Ellen Wiebe, who has helped hundreds of patients access medical aid in dying in Canada, discusses what makes a “good death” with journalist David Marchese
Terminally ill New Yorkers who had hoped to have medical aid in dying available to them in their final days expressed theri extreme disappointment in the Legislature’s failure to act.
Campaña para Autorizar Ayuda Médica para Morir en 2025 Empieza Hoy Mismo
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Compassion & Choices Gift Processing Center
PO Box 485
Etna, NH 03750
