While a 2024 poll indicated New Yorkers’ overwhelming support for New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act for terminally ill people (M.A.I.D.), the act had not been approved by the legislature each time it had been presented, despite support from the New York State Bar Association, the American College of Legal Medicine, the New York Civil Liberties Union and others. It recently passed the state legislature.
Advocates emphasize that providing a person with medical aid in dying grants a terminally ill person the dignity to choose not to suffer for months before the underlying illness causes their death.
To qualify for medical aid in dying under the proposed act, a person must be terminally ill with an expected survival of six months or less, 18 years or older, mentally capable of making health care decisions and able to ingest the medication by themselves. The act provides protections for the patient by requiring that the request be both oral and written and (1) attested to by two witnesses and two physicians must determine the patient has decision-making capacity and, if one of the physicians is unsure, they must refer the patient for evaluation to a mental health professional. No agent (e.g., an agent under a healthcare proxy) may request the medication on behalf of the patient.
The proposed act specifically provides that death under M.A.I.D. will not be treated as suicide for any purpose, as “suicide” involves a person who chooses not to live even though they could, but a person requesting M.A.I.D. cannot live but wants to live. The act specifically provides that life insurance death benefits cannot be denied where a patient dies under M.A.I.D. The act also permits the death certificate to list “underlying terminal condition” as the cause of death.
The proposed act also provides broad protections against liability for providers acting under M.A.I.D. for taking reasonable good-faith action under the act or refusing to act under the legislation, as some providers may not be comfortable acting under M.A.I.D. due to personal, religious and/or moral values or liability concerns.
At this time, the M.A.I.D. bill is waiting for Governor Hochul’s signature.
This article appeared in the July 2025 issue of Stroll Lloyd Harbor.
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