By Rachel Silberstein
Albany
The Assembly’s health committee on Monday convened the first of two public hearings on a proposed law that would allow certain terminally ill individuals who have less than six months to live the option to use medication to die in their sleep if their suffering is unbearable.
Lawmakers heard testimony from patients and their families, health care providers, legal experts, medical ethicists and religious leaders.
Patients argue that doctor-assisted dying is often the only alternative to a long and excruciating death, during which they may experience complete loss of bodily functions and mental facilities.
“You may have heard or read or even feel that aid in dying is suicide. I’m here to tell you that it’s not suicide at all. Aid in dying is about having end-of-life options. I want more than anything to live,” testified Susan Rahn, a 47-year-old Rochester mother who was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer in 2013. “I don’t want suffocate if the cancer invades my lungs. I don’t want to starve to death if the cancer invades my liver and I don’t want suffer seizures or not know who my son is if the cancer travels to my brain.”
New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act, sponsored by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and Sen. Diane Savino, would allow terminally ill patients who are determined to be mentally stable to end their lives using medication provided by a doctor.
Versions of the law, which builds on existing New York legislation enabling adults with mental capacity to refuse life-saving treatment, have been introduced in the Legislature before, but it has not passed either chamber and legislative leaders have been reluctant to embrace the issue.
Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried cited growing interest as the impetus for further exploration of the issue. Oregon was the first to legalize medical aid in dying more than 20 years ago, and Washington, Montana, Vermont, California, Colorado, Washington, D.C, and Hawaii have since followed.
The measure, which critics call “physician-assisted suicide,” pits terminally ill patients and their families, as well as some medical experts, against religious organizations and advocates for the disabled.
Groups speaking on behalf of those living with disabilities say that legalizing aid in dying reinforces the notion that those who have lost control of their functions, whether through illness or disability, have “undignified” lives that are not worth living.
“The disability community strongly opposes the belief that requiring the assistance of another individual for activities of daily living, such as dressing, bathing, and toileting, is undignified or a legitimate reason to legalize physician assisted suicide,” the New York Association on Independent Living wrote in a memorandum of opposition submitted to the panel.
New York’s Court of Appeals last year ruled against three terminally ill patients, who argued in court that dying on their own terms was a constitutional right. They asked that their doctors be protected from criminal charges should they prescribe patients a lethal medication.
The Assembly health committee has scheduled a second public hearing on the issue in New York City on May 3.
• Rachel.Silberstein@ timesunion.com • 518-454-5420