New York’s Proposed “Right to Die” Law is Lame
We don’t have a choice to be born into this world, and until recently people were not even given the legal right to leave it on our terms. People helplessly watched their mentally competent loved ones physically suffer during their last few months of life with no right to end their pain. And while society’s opinions regarding more liberal end-of-live options changed long ago, countries and states have only recently passed laws regarding a human’s right to face their death on their terms.
After a moral grudge match between two diametrically opposed philosophies, in 2025 New York’s assembly finally pushed through a right to die bill, which languished for months, waiting to be signed into law. Finally, Governor Hochul is expected to sign the “Medical Aid in Dying” law (“MAID”) this month after complex and protracted negotiations amongst several Now York legislators.
What Does the Law Look Like?
While MAID has not officially been signed into law, these are its expected requirements:
- Terminally Ill: The patient must be diagnosed with an incurable, irreversible illness expected to result in death within six months.
- New York Resident: No out-of-staters may come to New York to cease their lives.
- The Age of Majority: The patient must be an adult aged 18 or older.
- Mentally Competent: The patient must be capable of making informed healthcare decisions.
- Patient’s Multiple Requests: The patient must make multiple voluntary requests without outside influence for the life-ending medication which will induce death.
- Physician Confirmation. The attending physician must confirm the patient’s mental capacity and that the patient’s illness is terminal.
- Patient Administered: The patient must self-administer the medication.
How Does MAID Compare to Other State and Country Right to Die Laws?
Compared to the most liberal “Euthanasia Tourism” locations, such as Vermont or the Netherlands, MAID looks weak in comparison.
- A person losing his or her mental capabilities due to dementia may not be able to take advantage of MAID: People can live with Alzheimer’s for years before they die. If you are physically healthy and will live for several more years but are quickly losing mental capacity, by the time you are terminal (I.e., you only have 6 months left to live) you have long-since lost the mental capacity to terminate your life.
- While no state allows a minor the right to end his or her own life (yet), I can see how this is a cruel inequity for a child facing his or her demise. The fact that a child facing crippling physical pain at the end of their life are not given agency to end that pain with parental consent seems anathema to the concept of “dying with dignity”.
- Patients physically administering their own life-ceasing medication has been a consistent requirement if just about every jurisdiction which allows “death with dignity”. But for some patients with diminished motor skills this may not be possible. While this is rarely the case, people in this situation clearly deserve the right not to spend their last 6 months in a completely immobile state.
- And don’t forget: No state allows your Health Care Agent to terminate your life when you have lost your mental capacity, even if you would have wanted it, until you are terminally ill.
Bottom line: While MAID does provide a minimal right to die, it is clearly a compromise between those people who really support a right-to-die and those who really oppose it. While people who support death-with-dignity have made great strides in some locations, New York has chosen a middle of the road approach, and who knows how or if this legislation will ever be updated. People suffering from a degenerative cognitive illness may still be better suited choosing to end their lives in Vermont or Switzerland.
