New York state lawmakers have introduced a “death with dignity” bill that would make the state the sixth in the U.S. to allow terminally ill adults to end their own lives with doctor-prescribed medicine.
“The option to end one’s suffering when facing the final stages of a terminal illness should be a basic human right, and not dependent upon one’s zip code,” state Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) said in a statement Tuesday.
Savino is the primary co-sponsor of the New York End-of-Life Options Act, which would allow doctors to prescribe “medication that a patient can self-administer to bring about a peaceful and humane death.”
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“This is a bill that will respect differences, but allow people the option — those that have already given terminal diagnoses — who we want to have more control” in their final days, Hoylman said.
Hoylman said Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) hasn’t indicated whether he’d support the bill. Cuomo’s office did not respond to a Huffington Post request for comment.
