UPDATE: On September 7, 2017, New York’s highest court – the New York Court of Appeals – ruled that terminally ill people in this state do not have a state constitutional right to medical aid-in-dying, or, as the court refers to it, physician-assisted suicide.  [Here is the court’s 09-07-17 decision: NYCA Myers v. Schneiderman 09-07-17]  The court also concluded that New York’s assisted suicide statutes cannot properly be interpreted as excluding physicians who provide aid-in-dying.  The ruling was reported in the New York Times and Buffalo News.

The May 29, 2017 print version of the Buffalo Law Journal published my column – titled “Medical aid in dying: Should NYers have the option? – where I explain the “what” and “why” of this medical term of art, and the predicament of terminally ill patients in NYS who find the final stages of life unbearable, but currently have no way to achieve a peaceful death.

The column is available to the public on-line at the BLJ website.

I hope you find the piece informative. If you wish to learn more regarding this topic, I recommend that you visit the website of End of Life Choices New York at http://endoflifechoicesny.org/.

With All Due Respect,

Art Giacalone

P.S. The Buffalo News reported on the May 30, 2017 oral argument at New York State’s highest court regarding efforts to make medical aid-in-dying legal in NYS.