New York, New York, January 25, 2024 –

The Completed Life Initiative, which advocates for a patient’s right to direct their end-of-life care, is gratified that the New York State Bar Association issued a formal statement in support of the pending MAiD bill (A995a/S2445). This New York bill will afford terminally ill New Yorkers the option of Medical Aid in Dying (“MAiD”). The New York State Bar Association established a Taskforce in June 2023, which initiated a rigorous six-month study that invited expert testimony on all sides of the issue.

Support from the New York State Bar Association is the first of its kind in the nine years that the legislature has considered establishing this end-of-life option in New York. David N. Hoffman, J.D., healthcare consultant and Board Secretary of the Completed Life Initiative, who testified before the Taskforce, reflected that “every patient at the end of life deserves a death that is safe, certain, and painless. The voice of the legal community should reassure members of the New York State legislature that authorizing Medical Aid in Dying in New York is not only the right thing to do morally, but both permissible and appropriate legally.”

With the addition of New York to eleven other jurisdictions – ten states plus Washington D.C. – the number of Americans who will have access to Medical Aid in Dying will increase from 73.6 million to 93.1 million people, a twenty-six percent increase that will expand availability of this end-of-life option to 1 in 4 Americans.

New York currently trails other states. California, which passed its own End of Life Options Act in 2016, has a population of 39 million, twice the size of New York’s 19.5 million. States local to New York that allow aid in dying, such as New Jersey and Vermont, functionally encourage New Yorkers to leave – not stay – if they seek this option. “New Yorkers already have access to Medical Aid in Dying, but it requires that they travel to Vermont or establish residency in New Jersey,” continued Professor Hoffman. “By adopting its own aid in dying law, New York’s legislature will be able to define – for New Yorkers – the appropriate terms of access and protections necessary for the 19.5 million people in our great state.”

Legislative action on the New York Medical Aid in Dying bill awaits a recommendation from the Senate and Assembly Health Care Committees. For more information on the process, click here.

For more information on where Medical Aid in Dying is currently legal, explore our MAiD map here.

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