New York Gov. Hochul will sign the medically assisted suicide bill

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she plans to sign a measure to legalize medically assisted suicide for terminally ill patients under an agreement reached with state lawmakers.

The governor intends to sign the bill next year after working to add a series of “watchdogs,” he wrote in an op-ed in the Albany Times Union announcing his plans. The measure, approved by state lawmakers during their regulatory session earlier this year, will take effect six months after it is signed.

Hochul, who is Catholic, said he was listening to New Yorkers in “pain and suffering,” and their children, while hearing from “people of many faiths who believe that intentionally shortening a person’s life violates the sanctity of life.”

“I was taught that God has mercy and compassion, and we must be like that,” he wrote. “This includes allowing the option of mercy for those facing the unimaginable and seeking comfort in their final months of life.”

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New York will join a dozen other states and Washington, DC, in adopting laws allowing physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill adults, including Delaware and Illinois, each of which passed laws this year that will take effect in 2026.

Several other countries, including Canada, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia and Colombia, have also legalized so-called dignified death.

New York’s bill, called the Medical Aid in Dying Act, requires a terminally ill person who is expected to die within six months to make a written request for lethal drugs. Two witnesses must sign the application to ensure that the patient is not coerced, and the application will need to be approved by the patient’s attending physician and the attending physician.

The bill’s sponsors and legislative leaders agreed to add provisions authorizing a doctor to certify that a person has “less than six months to live,” as well as an assurance from a psychiatrist or psychologist that the patient is capable of making a decision without coercion.

“The Medical Aid in Dying Act would give terminally ill New Yorkers the right to spend their final days not under the dim lights of a hospital but with sunlight streaming through their bedroom window,” Hochul wrote.

“The privilege of spending their last days without hearing the hum of hospital machines but instead hearing the laughter of their grandchildren in the next room. The privilege of telling their family that they love them and being able to hear those precious words in return,” he added.

Hochul said the bill would include a five-day waiting period in addition to a written and recorded oral request to confirm that “freedom of choice exists.” Outpatient facilities affiliated with religious hospitals may choose not to perform assisted suicide.

The governor also said he wants the bill to apply to New York residents only.

Earlier this month, an appeals court ruled that a similar New Jersey law applies only to state residents and that people from other states cannot seek medical assistance when they die in the Garden State.

“Death ends good things, but rarely gracefully,” U.S. District Court Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the opinion. “Many terminally ill patients face a harsh reality: an imminent, painful death. Some may want to avoid that suffering by asking a physician to end their life. New Jersey allows its residents to make that choice—but only its residents.”

Hochul said Wednesday that sponsoring the New York bill was one of the toughest decisions he has made as governor.

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“Who am I to deny you or your loved one what they are asking for at the end of their life?” he said. “I couldn’t do that anymore.”

The law was first introduced in 2016 but failed to gain approval for years as religious groups such as the New York State Catholic Conference sought to block the move, saying it would devalue human life and undermine the role of the doctor as a healer.

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the bishops of New York said in a statement after Hochul’s announcement that his support for the bill “shows that our government is abandoning its most vulnerable citizens, telling people who are sick or disabled that taking their own lives is not only unacceptable, but encouraged by our elected leaders.”

But supporters of the law argue that it will reduce the suffering of terminally ill people and allow them to die themselves.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.