On Dec 16. after months of speculation and pearl-clutching, Gov Kathy Hochul, announced her intention of signing early next year New York's Medical Aid in Dying Law, subject to several critical amendments, or
"furhter guardrails", as she described them. Her willingness to sign the bill at all had long been in some doubt. As a Catholic who attended Catholic University Law School, she was particuarly sensitive to the reproaches of the Catholic hieararchy who lobbied relentlessly against this "pact of death" along with members of the disabled rights community who argue that MAID somehow diminishes their worth.
The New York bill was first introduced in 2016 but then stalled for several years, a not unusual development. In 2023-2024, successive bills were introduced by advocates. However, extraordinarily, it was the the New York State Bar Association which took the lead by forming a Task Force on MAID in June 2023, releasing a supportive report in Jan 2024. This may well have been the institutional fillip which ultimately led to legislative success. In no other state, was the relevant state bar association as invovled and supportive as in New York.
In 2025, the stars seemed aligned: Assembly A00136 was introduced and passed through the Assembly Health Committeee and the full Assembly 81-61 on April 29, 2025. Senate Bill 136, which was the Senate version of the Assembly Bill, then passed 35-27 on June 9, 2025.
All eyes turned to Gov Hochul, who kept her cards close to her vest for months, as she heard a parade of advocates and dissenters. Opponents painted a particularly dire situation for the "vulnerable", envisioning a situation where New York's most marginalised would be coerced into availing themselves of MAID-- this despite the experience in every other MAID state where just the opposite occurrs.
The bill as passed would have been without a doubt the most accessible end of life legislation in the country: there was no waiting period and there was no residency.requirement.
A POTENTIAL GAME CHANGEr FOR NC
Had the New York bill passed as drafted, a North Carolininan who was mentally competent and terminally ill, could have flown up to JFK/LGA, qualified in front of two doctors within days, had the prescription filled and then flown back to their home in Orange, Durham, Wake, Forsyth or Guillford Counties, and kept the medicine by their bedside in the familiar surroundings of their own home, to be used, if or when they felt the need.
Instead Gov Hochul, up for re-election in 2026, has dramatically toughened the bill to require state residency, a 5-day waiting period and a mandatory examination by a psychologist/psychiatrist, as if anyone wishing to abbreviate end-of-life suffering must be suspect.
Nevertheless, a win is a win, and NY now becomes the 13th US jurisdiction to have authorised MAID, the third this year alone after Delaware and Illinois. Gov Hochul in agreeing to the bill subject to further safeguards, cited the case of her own mother who had died a horrid ALS and concluded this bill was not about shortening life, but shortening death.
This is yet another example where the balancing act between safeguards and accessbility tilts in favor of safeguards, as if the requirement for self-administration wasn't the ultimate safeguard against coerciion.
