NY lawmakers back controversial assisted suicide bill as state wrangles with Hochul over budget
ALBANY — New York state lawmakers are getting behind a proposal to legalize assisted suicide, The Post has learned.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) told lawmakers during a meeting behind closed doors Tuesday that the bill – which proponents call medical aid in dying – has the votes to pass, according to a source with knowledge of the discussion.
The meeting about the controversial measure — which several sources said could be brought for a vote as soon as next week — came as the Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul continue to hammer out a deal over the state budget, which was due April 1.
The bill would allow a mentally competent, terminally ill adult with six months or less to live to request a fatal cocktail of drugs from a doctor.
Several sources also told The Post that it could be put up for a vote in the Assembly as soon as next week.
Heastie has previously said he supports the bill, but it's never been brought up on the Assembly floor, a sign it didn't have the votes to pass.
Supporters of the measure claimed it also has enough support in the state Senate.
'Everyone should have the right to choose for themselves,' state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a backer of the bill, told The Post Tuesday.
'If they are of sound mind and want to end unbearable suffering with no prospects of recovery, they should be able to choose the way they die.'
Corinne Carey, local senior director of Compassion & Choices, one of the groups pushing for the measure, said it was part of a campaign to 'ensure terminally ill New Yorkers have access to a full range of end of life options.'
But the New York State Catholic Conference urged lawmakers to oppose the measure, saying it sends the wrong message.
'At a time when the state is facing a suicide crisis, particularly among young people, we are sending the message that some lives are not worth living,' Dennis Poust, the religious group's executive director, said in a statement.
'Cardinal Dolan and the state's Catholic bishops implore legislators to reject this terrible bill,' Poust added.
Lawmakers meanwhile on Tuesday again voted to keep the state government running on a temporary basis as negotiations over Hochul's $252 billion proposed fiscal year 2026 budget entered their fourth week.
One of the major stumbling blocks, Hochul's proposal to make it easier to force mentally ill people into treatment has largely cleared, a source close to the talks said Tuesday.
Hochul said over the weekend that the crafting of the spending plan was in its 'final chapter.'
Heastie said legislative leaders were 'close' on an agreement over the measures earlier this month, and that the governor was agreeing to some concessions meant to win over lawmakers who were in opposition.
Those concessions include increasing and beefing up pilot programs where county-level behavioral health counselors accompany police on some 911 calls and discharge planning when someone is released from commitment.
'I think the hope is we reach agreement on things this week and pass them next,' state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) told reporters Tuesday, hinting that a tentative handshake agreement could feasibly come before week's end.
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