The sounds of protest came powerfully from the gallery of the Assembly chamber, the chants echoing the words on the handmade banners held aloft: “Stop the suffering, pass the bill!”
But as New York State troopers began to remove some of the protesters – some holding canes, others calmed by the effects of cancer treatment – it was clear that this demonstration had a personal and immediate resonance for those involved.
The protests are the latest in a series of increasingly desperate demonstrations to persuade state lawmakers to pass legislation that would legalize so-called medical aid in dying, allowing terminally ill people access to life-ending drugs for the first time in that country.
New York is one of 19 states where lawmakers are considering a bill that would legalize medical aid in dying, a practice legalized in 10 states and Washington, D.C.
The bill in New York would allow mentally competent and terminally ill adults who have no more than six months to live to obtain a prescription from a doctor for end-of-life medication. The patient must be able to take the medicine himself, and only those who want to die can get the prescription.
“I’m not someone who likes conflict or who has a lot of experience with civil disobedience,” said Jules Netherland, a protester detained at the Capitol. “But I believe it’s the only way to get people’s attention.”
About a decade has passed since the first medical aid in dying Bill was introduced in Albany, and it has not reached the floor for a vote. But the proposal gained momentum this year, thanks to the support of groups like the Medical Society of the State of New York, a trade group of about 20,000 doctors, and the efforts of activists like Ms. Netherland, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer last year.
Opponents worry that some patients may choose to end their lives based on inaccurate predictions or after being forced to do so. And while the current bill is limited to terminally ill people, he worries that lawmakers may expand the right to medical aid in dying after initial legislation is passed.
“Even if there’s just one case of abuse or coercion, or even if there’s just one mistake, someone dies,” said Colleen Barry, a nurse and board member of the US Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
With about a week left in the 2024 legislative session, the bill faces an uphill battle in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, notably without official support from Gov. Kathy Hochul or House and Senate leaders.
Still, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, chairwoman of the body’s Health Committee, said it has gradually gained support since it was first sponsored in 2016.
“It’s an emotional vote,” no different than abortion or marriage equality, Ms. Paulin, who represents part of Westchester County and is motivated by the memory of her sister, who was unable to get that help when she died of ovarian cancer. . “Many of my colleagues came to me with stories that caused them to change their minds. This is about life, and about choices. More members feel it and live it and understand it.
But it is the emotional gravity of the issue that has some leaders in doubt, according to many lawmakers.
“I just think, as a culture, as a country, there hasn’t been a lot of conversation about dying,” State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins ​​said of the proposal earlier this year, adding that she not opposed to having that conversation.
Opponents, including the Disability Rights Center and the New York State Catholic Conference, warn that this narrow application of aid will lead to wider use. He points to places, mostly outside the United States, where the practice is available not only to patients with terminal physical illnesses, but also to those who are mentally ill.
Most of the people who use these laws in the United States suffer from terminal physical illnesses – the most common being cancer. But rare exceptions, such as a 36-year-old Colorado woman who was given end-of-life treatment after a diagnosis of “terminal anorexia nervosa,” have sparked controversy and raised questions about suffering, autonomy and the role and responsibility of doctors.
The American Medical Association officially opposes physician-assisted suicide, which it describes as “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” For years, the Medical Society of the State of New York has agreed.
But recent talk of legislation — which would not only limit the practice to the terminally ill, but also allow individual providers to opt out based on their own beliefs — led the group to reverse course and approve the measure.
Proponents of the practice say that legalizing medical aid in dying would help many people avoid suffering and die peacefully. He points to a similar poll commissioned earlier this year by YouGov that found 72 percent of New Yorkers support “death with dignity.”
Between 1994, when Oregon became the first state to legalize the practice, and 2020, 8,451 people received a prescription in the medical aid in dying law. Of those, 5,329 took the latter drug, according to a 2022 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Barbara Thomas, 87, broke down in tears as she tried to imagine the reality that would be a choice for her husband, Bob Thomas, who died 15 months after being diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme – a type of terminal brain cancer – in the fall. in 2010.
“I think we’ll love each other more. We can all get together,” she said, pausing to cry. “He would, of course, prefer to be able to have everyone so that he can talk to them, give them the desire to live and hear them say what they like about him.”
However, Mr. Thomas, a proud outdoorsman who enjoys fly fishing, hunting, camping and hiking, spent most of the last month in bed at home in West Milton, NY, tired and frail, Ms. Thomas said.
“Sometimes we just sit in bed and cry about the impossible situation,” she recalls.
The second time, Mr. Thomas asked his wife for a gun and helped him kill himself, Ms. Thomas said. He never did, but it hurt him to see her sad and to know that there was nothing he could do to ease her suffering.
“He was someone I lived with longer than anyone else – longer than my parents, longer than my children,” said Ms. Thomas, adding that they have been married for 55 years. “We still love each other.”
For him, allowing people like his wife to choose when and how he dies, is “for mercy and love”.
