New York state lawmakers have introduced a “death with dignity” bill that would make the state the sixth in the U.S. to allow terminally ill adults to end their own lives with doctor-prescribed medicine.
“The option to end one’s suffering when facing the final stages of a terminal illness should be a basic human right, and not dependent upon one’s zip code,” state Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) said in a statement Tuesday.
Savino is the primary co-sponsor of the New York End-of-Life Options Act, which would allow doctors to prescribe “medication that a patient can self-administer to bring about a peaceful and humane death.”
The bill, introduced last week, is modeled after Oregon’s “Death With Dignity” law, which grabbed headlines in October after Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with terminal brain cancer, moved to the state from California in order to end her life. Maynard was surrounded by her family in Portland when she died on Nov. 1.
Savino said she met last month with Maynard’s family, including her husband, Dan Diaz.
“Meeting Mr. Diaz only strengthened my commitment to helping every New Yorker gain access to the option of aid in dying,” Savino said. “I was honored to meet Brittany’s family and to learn how this option improved her well-being during her illness, as well as how having to move to another state only made her final months that much harder.”
Diaz said in a statement Tuesday that Oregon’s law enabled his wife “to focus on living her last days to the fullest, rather than living in fear of dying in agony from terminal brain cancer.”
I am at a loss to understand why any legislators would try to block this bill. It is a matter of personal choice. Those who do not believe in death with dignity via medicine would never have to do it. If any state on the east coast passes this law or a similar law, it will be New York.
If you had a friend or relative with a terminal illness, would you help them arrange to end their own lives? What safeguards to you think should be in place to protect the patient? Should a physician be present?
Why should politicians be involved? Should death with dignity even be in the perview of government?
Why would churches care about this legislation?
In the Aging & Disability worlds, we talk of “Aging in Place”, “Choices for Independence”, “Liveable Communities”, “Person-Centered Care”….all saying a person has the right to make the decision of where and how they want to live. And yet, when it comes to Death with Dignity, all the wailing and nashing begins.
Part of it is culture: Religion plays a big part…tradition that suicide means you cannot be buried on holy ground, instant ticket to hell, etc. Medicine is all about the cure. And on, and on, and on.
Personally, since the Oregon Law has stood the test of legality; has built in safeguards; well, let us see since the NY proposed Law follows what is already in place succeeds. I can agree with the tenants.
We sure use a lot of euphemisms for what we are talking about when it comes to taking one’s own life. Interesting, we are even cavalier about it …ie “pulling the plug.” I guess that is when someone else does it.
Frankly, I think churches need to stay out of public policy. They can administer to their own flock and be done with it.
I hope the legislation in NY passes. Oregon is a long way for those of us on the east coast.
Once again, the government makes deeply personal decisions for its citizens.
Even in Virginia, we make choices on how to end our lives with dignity. That is if you consider lifelong smoking, driving while intoxicated or not changing the batteries in your smoke detector dignified.
I was thinking of something a little less iffy.