Advocates are pushing the state to allow terminally ill patients to die on their own terms.

The Medical Aid in Dying Act has passed the Assembly and is now headed to the Senate. The bill would allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults with prognosis of six months or less to request a prescription they can self-ingest to die peacefully. There would be strict safeguards in place.

“One of the things that people need to understand is that medical aid in dying doesn’t increase the number of people who are dying,” said Corinne Carey, who leads the New York Campaign for Compassion and Choices.

“It just decreases the number of people who suffer at the end of life. These are folks who want more than nothing to live.”

Carey has met dozens of advocates who died without this option, and she said they deserved more in their final days.

Dr. Jeremy Boal is a retired physician who was diagnosed with ALS in 2023. The terminal disease robs patients of movement, speech and even breathing. He was depressed and anxious. Then, he realized he has the resources to move to 11 jurisdictions where medical aid in dying is legal.  

“And then I started to live again, rather than just focus on this terminal illness that I had,” he said.

Bull says the current system leaves too many behind, especially those without the means to move to states where medical aid in dying is legal.

Learn more by watching video of Tamara Starr’s story.