New York prepares to enact new law allowing medically assisted death

New York is expected to become the fourteenth state to legalize medically assisted death in the United States, upon receiving Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature this week.

The Medical Aid In Dying Act, which was passed by the New York state legislature last year, provides legal language to allow terminally-ill, mentally-competent people who are given less than six months to live to request life-ending medication.

For more than 10 years, state lawmakers have sought to legalize medically assisted death in New York, allowing terminally ill people to die with dignity.

“It isn’t about ending a person’s life, but shortening their death,” then-New York state Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal told reporters last year. Hoylman-Sigal introduced the bill but was elected Manhattan Borough President in November, before the bill was enacted.

Although the state legislature passed the bill last year, Hochul had wavered on signing it to negotiate additional guardrails. In December, the governor announced she would sign the bill after reaching a deal to require patients participate in a five-day waiting period, mandatory mental health evaluations, in-person physician evaluation, elect a person other than someone who may benefit financially from their death serve as a witness to the request and more.

The governor, who said she plans to sign the bill, has until Friday at midnight to enact it. It will take effect six months later.

“Although this was an incredibly difficult decision, I ultimately determined that with the additional guardrails agreed upon with the legislature, this bill would allow New Yorkers to suffer less–to shorten not their lives, but their deaths,” Hochul said in December.

Hochul asked for the six-month extension to give the state Department of Health to place regulations around the medication and process while ensuring healthcare facilities can properly train staff.

Medically-assisted death is largely favored in the U.S. A 2024 Gallup poll found that 71 percent of people believe doctors should be allowed by law to end a patient’s life in a painless way if it meets the patient’s request.

Last year, a group commissioned to conduct a poll of New Yorkers’ feelings toward medically assisted death, End of Life Choice New York, found that 68 percent supported the legislation. While support varied on demographic, people of all races and political affiliation largely supported the law.

New York will join California, Colorado, Delaware, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington in legalizing medically assisted death.