After a years-long legislative battle, New York\u2019s medical aid in dying law took effect Wednesday, allowing those with terminal illnesses to end their lives by taking a lethal dose of medication.<\/p>\n
As a state senator, Brad Hoylman-Sigal spent years fighting to pass the legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was a long time coming,\u201d Hoylman-Sigal, now the Manhattan borough president, said.<\/p>\n
New Yorkers 18 and over with six months or less to live can now request life-ending medication, subject to some restrictions.<\/p>\n
Two physicians must sign off on any request, and there\u2019s a five-day waiting period after the request is made. Patients must also undergo a mandatory mental health evaluation, and physicians can opt-out on moral or any other grounds.<\/p>\n
But medical providers who opt out must transfer the patient to a willing provider.<\/p>\n
And that is, in part, the subject of a lawsuit filed by four orders of Catholic nuns and other Catholic ministries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they want to opt out, New York has said, \u2018Fine, you can opt out but you\u2019ve got to find someone else to give it to them.\u2019 They can\u2019t do that either,\u201d said Adele Keim, an attorney at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the groups.<\/p>\n
While the state has agreed to grant the plaintiffs a temporary exemption, the lawsuit is proceeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the sisters are asking for is a true opt-out: the ability to not participate and the ability for their residents to not have to hear about this,\u201d Keim said.<\/p>\n
Twelve other states and Washington D.C. have enacted medical aid in dying, but New York\u2019s law is one of the most restrictive.<\/p>\n
Among other safeguards, patients must make the request both verbally and in writing. The option is available only to New York residents.<\/p>\n
Still, some groups continue to raise concerns. The New York Association on Independent Living sent the state health department a letter Tuesday calling for a delay in the law\u2019s implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just not prepared,\u201d said Blaise Bryant, communications specialist for the group. \u201cThe state didn\u2019t provide adequate time to address concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
The law\u2019s supporters believe it\u2019s a matter of personal freedom and dignity.<\/p>\n
\u201cMedical aid in dying isn\u2019t so much about ending one\u2019s life,\u201d Hoylman-Sigal said, \u201cas ending the length of death.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who announced her support for the bill last December, signed the legislation in February. She acknowledged her position is at odds with her own Catholic upbringing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud that I gave people the choice, when life gets really hard, that they don\u2019t have to prolong a death that\u2019s inevitable,\u201d she said in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a years-long legislative battle, New York\u2019s medical aid in dying law took effect Wednesday, allowing those with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109,25,3284,9,24,55,54,12,56,87,27,200],"class_list":["post-314764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bobby-cuza","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}