Faced with a terminal diagnosis, New Yorkers deserve the full range of medically appropriate options for care at the end of life.

 


Legislative Office Building Display Boards:  
Since 2022, Compassion & Choices New York has hosted a large-scale installation in the Legislative Office Building of the New York State Capitol Complex explaining why the legislature should expand end-of-life options and pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act. You can view each of the 8 foot by 4 foot boards as displayed in January 2024 by clicking the link below:

2024 Legislative Office Building Display Boards (PDF)

Quick Resources:  

Welcome!

Compassion & Choices New York’s core mission is to support, educate and empower healthcare consumers to demand the best possible end-of-life care that respects patients’ autonomy. Our legislative agenda includes, but is not limited to, advocating for the New York Medical Aid in Dying Act, which would allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults to have the option of medical aid in dying to peacefully end intolerable suffering when no other option will provide relief.

Watch this space for resources and facts about medical aid in dying, and the latest updates in our campaign to bring this compassionate option to terminally ill New Yorkers.

With gratitude,

Corinne Carey
Senior Campaign Director

 

The Facts About Medical Aid in Dying

Medical aid in dying is optional.
Optional for patients and optional for doctors. No person is required to use it. No doctor is mandated to provide it. It is illegal to force someone to use it.

Medical aid in dying includes strict eligibility requirements.
A patient must be an adult, have six months or less to live, be able to make an informed health care decision and be able to take the medication themselves.

The New York Medical Aid in Dying Act includes more than a dozen safeguards.
Two doctors must confirm that the patient has six months or less to live — due to terminal illness, not because of age or disability. Two doctors and two independent witnesses must confirm that no coercion exists.

Medical aid in dying is a medical practice proven by decades of experience in authorized states.
In more than 20 years of experience since the first law was enacted in Oregon, and an additional 40+ years of combined evidence and cumulative data from the laws passed in other jurisdictions there is not a single substantiated case of abuse or coercion nor any civil or criminal charges filed related to the practice. Not one.

Medical aid in dying gives patients autonomy.
This law would put the dying person in charge. Only they can request the medication. They take it themselves — no one can administer the medication to them. And they can change their mind at any time. Medical aid in dying improves end-of-life care. Studies show palliative (“comfort”) care gets better for patients — and families — in states with medical aid in dying.

Medical aid in dying helps far more people than those who choose to use it.
Research shows just having medical aid in dying as an option relieves fear and anxiety — even for those who never choose the option.

New York Doctors support medical aid in dying.
A 2019 Medscape survey reported that when New York physicians learned about how medical aid in dying would be implemented in the bill before the state Legislature, their level of support jumped 18 points, from a 30-point margin (56%–26%) in support to a 48-point margin (67%–19%) in support.

Learn more about New York physicians’ support for medical aid in dying:

New Yorkers want medical aid in dying. By a more than a 2–1 margin (63%–29%) New York voters support, “allowing doctors to legally prescribe lethal drugs to help terminally ill patients end their own lives.” ( Quinnipiac, 2018)

Medical aid in dying is currently authorized in eleven jurisdictions. 
They include Oregon (1994), Washington (2008), Montana (2009), California (2015), Colorado (2016), the District of Columbia (2016), Hawai‘i (2018), Maine (2019), New Mexico (2021), and our neighbors in Vermont (2013) and New Jersey (2019).

See our Medical Aid in Dying State Utilization Reports here (Last updated Feb. 1, 2021).

A printable version of this list is available here.

Document: Organizational Memos of Support (as of April 25, 2022)

The Campaign to Pass the New York Medical Aid in Dying Act

Below you will find a list of campaign materials that will be updated throughout New York’s 2021/2022 legislative session, sorted with the most recently published items displayed first.

  • December 14, 2021 – The Buffalo News: Another Voice: Medical aid-in-dying bill needs a legislative push by Ari Klein, Dr. Milch’s grandson
  • Compassion & Choices NY Video: Real Stories. Real New Yorkers. Hospice Buffalo co-founder Dr. Robert Milch (1943–2021)
  • Empire Report — On His Deathbed, A Doctor Asks Legislature to Pass Medical Aid in Dying Act by Robert Milch, MD, FACS
  • Compassion & Choices NY TV spot ft. Monona Yin
  • Video: Life, Death, and Compassion: A Conversation about Medical Aid in Dying in New York co-hosted by Union Theological Seminary, Compassion & Choices and SAGE (Recorded April 29, 2021)
  • Compassion & Choices NY TV spot ft. storyteller Scott Barraco
  • Video: Compassion & Choices New York Virtual Rally: #StopTheSuffering (Recorded April 15, 2021)
  • Video: Compassion & Choices NY TV spot ft. Jennifer Milich and Dr. Jeff Gardere
  • Video: Education and Empowerment: Reducing End-of-Life Disparities – Presented by New York Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman and Compassion & Choices. Featuring Asmb. Hyndman, Dr. Jeff Gardere, Ottamissah “Missy” Moore, RN, and Corinne Carey. Recorded Thursday, January 21, 2021.
  • Video: New York Assemblymember Karines Reyes and terminally ill Buffalo resident Jennifer Milich
  • Empire Report — Corinne Carey: We’re All Looking for the Light at the End of the Tunnel
  • 2020 Webinar Series for NY Lawmakers — Part 2: Understanding Options and Resources: New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act, with Dan Diaz and Corinne Carey
  • 2020 Webinar Series for NY Lawmakers — Part 1: Advance Care Planning During COVID-19, with Dr. Jeff Gardere

 


Latest News

Dr. Jeff Gardere “Psicólogo de Estados Unidos” se une a Mesa Directiva de Compassion & Choices

Psicólogo Clínico Certificado, Profesor y Colaborador de Noticias y Medios en Directo se Une a Grupo de Defensa para Impulsar la Equidad en el Fin de Vida

Compassion & Choices, la organización sin fines de lucro y líder del país dedicada a mejorar los cuidados de salud y ampliar las opciones para el fin de vida, anunció el jueves el nombramiento del Dr. Jeff Gardere, psicólogo certificado y ministro interreligioso y autor de su estimada Mesa Directiva. Conocido cariñosamente por millones de estadounidenses como “Dr. Jeff”, sus numerosas apariciones en los diversos medios le han dado el nombre de “Psicólogo de Estados Unidos”.

Además de tener una práctica privada en Manhattan, él es profesor asociado y director del Curso de Medicina de Comportamiento en Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine en la ciudad de Nueva York y vive en Manhattan y Weston, Connecticut.  El Dr. Jeff ha abogado por la aprobación de medidas de ayuda médica para morir en Connecticut y Nueva York y trabajó asimismo con el Equipo de Participación Comunitaria de Compassion & Choices, para asesorar a la comunidad Afroamericana sobre la gama completa de opciones de cuidados de salud para el fin de vida, incluyendo los cuidados paliativos y de hospicio.

Algunas personas  pueden reconocer al Dr. Jeff como el psicólogo destacado en las últimas temporadas de “The Real Housewives”, “Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta”, “Couples Court” y “Paternity Court”. También ha sido colaborador habitual de la cadena FOX, Today Show, MSNBC y CNN. Asimismo, fue el presentador de “Dad Camp” de VH1 y aparece en el próximo documental “Let 's Talk: Mental Health in Color”.

El Dr. Jeff también es autor de varios libros, incluyendo "Smart Parenting for African Americans: Helping Your Kids Thrive in a Difficult World" y coautor de "Practical Parenting" con Montel Williams, el presentador de programas de entrevistas de televisión y ganador del premio Emmy (partidario también de Compassion & Choices).

“Ser parte de la mesa directiva de Compassion & Choices es un inmenso honor para mí", dijo el Dr. Jeff. “La muerte nos afecta a todos y empoderarse con la información correcta, puede marcar la diferencia entre una buena o una mala muerte para usted o para sus seres queridos. Estoy emocionado de estar en asociación con Compassion & Choices para utilizar mi voz y ayudar a abogar por una mayor equidad en los cuidados de salud para el fin de vida y llegar a nuevas audiencias con los recursos increíbles que tiene la organización para brindarle a las personas. Juntos, podemos garantizar que toda persona pueda tener acceso a cuidados compasivos para el fin de vida que respeten sus preferencias y valores personales”.

Dr. Jeff Gardere and Compassion & Choices Pres./CEO Kim Callinan

Dr. Jeff Gardere y Kim Callinan, presidenta y directora ejecutiva de Compassion & Choices

 

Kim Callinan, presidenta y directora ejecutiva de Compassion & Choices, expresó su entusiasmo por el nombramiento del Dr. Jeff y afirmó: "La profunda experiencia del Dr. Jeff y su compromiso para abordar las desigualdades en los cuidados de salud, lo convierten en una afiliación invaluable para nuestra mesa directiva. Su perspectiva será trascendental mientras trabajamos para mejorar los cuidados de salud para el fin de vida y empoderar a todas las personas para que elijan los cuidados de salud que sean adecuados para ellas".

"Después de años de estar en asociación con el Dr. Jeff en su función como asesor de Compassion & Choices, estoy encantada de darle la bienvenida a nuestra mesa directiva al 'Psicólogo de Estados Unidos'", dijo Brandi Alexander, directora de Participación de Compassion & Choices. "Sé que él continuará elevando nuestro trabajo para cultivar un movimiento más inclusivo de opciones de cuidados de salud para el fin de vida”.

El Dr. Jeff tiene un doctorado en psicología clínica de la Universidad George Washington y ha recibido numerosos premios por su defensa y educación en el ámbito de la salud mental.