Will discuss efforts to pass death-with-dignity act
Three members of Compassion & Choices New York, including its newly hired New York State campaign director, will speak at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the Desmond-Fish Library on the effort to make it legal in New York for physicians to assist in the deaths of terminally ill patients.
The non-profit group, based in Denver, campaigns for “death with dignity” bills such as the New York End of Life Options Act, which has been introduced in the state senate in Albany. The bill “authorizes the prescription of aid-in-dying medication to individuals with terminal illnesses; terminal illness means incurable and irreversible illness that has been medically confirmed that will result in death within six months; form must be signed by the qualified individual and by two witnesses; no liability or sanctions where the health care provider participates in good faith.”
Compassion & Choices says a poll it commissioned in October 2015 found that 75 percent of New York voters support an aid-in-dying law. Earlier this month, opponents of the End of Life Option Act, newly passed in California, failed to gather enough signatures to get a referendum on the ballot in November to overturn it.
The Desmond-Fish Library is located at the corner of routes 9D and 403 in Garrison. For information, visit compassionandchoices.org.
