Latest news with #MedicalAidinDying
Politico
12-05-2025
- Health
- Politico
Medical Aid in Dying passes Assembly, awaits Senate vote
Beat Memo Democratic Lawmakers and advocates are closing in on the votes needed to pass Medical Aid in Dying, a long-lingering measure that would allow doctors to prescribe euthanizing medication to people with terminal illnesses. The legislation passed the Assembly at the end of April, but 32 votes are needed to pass the measure in the Senate. The Senate has 26 co-sponsors on its bill, but state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who is sponsoring it, said he is hopeful they will be successful in securing the remaining votes to pass the chamber. If it passes into law, New York would become the 11th state to legalize some form of assisted suicide. The Catholic Church and other religious groups have strongly opposed the measure. Republicans sided with them, arguing that legalizing prescriptions for suicide is a slippery slope. Advocates for and against the measure visited the Capitol last week, aiming to either strike down the measure or secure the final votes needed to pass. Hoylman-Sigal said he wasn't surprised by the presence of advocates lobbying against his bill. 'No one thought we would be a year ago, much less a few weeks ago,' Hoylman-Sigal told POLITICO. 'This issue isn't going away, just like terminal illnesses are not going away, and death itself impacts all of us.' 'If you don't want to end your life in a planned sequential process that involves ingesting medication when you've been given a terminal illness of six months or fewer with your family and friends surrounding you as you head off into the other world, then don't do it,' Holyman-Sigal said of the opposition. The Assembly's final vote was 81-67, with no Republicans supporting the bill. A sizable majority of Democrats expressed support, but some religious members and others who spoke about a lack of equitable access to health care joined the opposition. ON THE AGENDA: — Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Drug Utilization Review Board will meet. MAKING ROUNDS: — Sandra Scott was appointed CEO of One Brooklyn Health by the health system's board of trustees, and Arthur Gianelli will serve as president and chief transformation officer. Scott has served as interim CEO since January 2024. Gianelli previously served as president of Mount Sinai Morningside hospital and chief transformation officer. — Joseph Tomaino has joined the board of the Nassau Health Care Corporation. He is currently CEO of Grassi Healthcare Advisors, LLC. GOT TIPS? Send story ideas and feedback to Maya Kaufman at mkaufman@ and Katelyn Cordero at kcordero@ Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. What you may have missed — A citywide doula initiative spearheaded by Mayor Eric Adams is showing promise in the fight against racial disparities in maternal health outcomes, POLITICO Pro's Maya Kaufman reported. Black and Hispanic women in the doula initiative saw lower rates of C-sections, preterm births and low birth weights than nonparticipants citywide, according to an audit conducted by city Comptroller Brad Lander's office, which was released Friday. No maternal deaths were identified among the initiative's clients between March 2022 and June 2024. ODDS AND ENDS NOW WE KNOW — Tying U.S. drug prices to those abroad could have unintended consequences. TODAY'S TIP — A doctor shares his science-backed formula for aging better. STUDY THIS — Via NPR: Many common beauty products contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, according to a study of Black and Latina women in Los Angeles. WHAT WE'RE READING — State bets on Medicaid payment shift to fund city public hospitals. (Crain's New York Business) — Uproar over surgeon general pick exposes MAHA factions among RFK Jr. allies. (Washington Post) — From pandemic preparedness to precious frozen spit, NIH contract terminations cut deep. (STAT) Around POLITICO — Conservatives fret HHS cuts, worrying it undercuts the president's agenda, Amanda Friedman reports. — Trump transforms congressionally mandated health offices into ghost towns, via Alice Miranda Ollstein and Sophie Gardner. MISSED A ROUNDUP? Get caught up on the New York Health Care Newsletter.
New York Post
04-05-2025
- Health
- New York Post
New York, halt assisted suicide — the ‘death cult' won't stop with the terminally ill
New York is poised to join an unholy alliance of US states that let doctors help people kill themselves. It's done under the guise of humanitarian empathy, but in practice it merely cheapens and devalues life. Advocates say that enabling a speedy death is a kindness for those in pain. They claim it'll only be employed in the most devastating of circumstances, where a terminally ill patient has just a short time to live and wishes to 'die with dignity.' These are the same people who want us to kill our babies if they're inconvenient and sterilize our children to placate an adult fantasy that they can swap their sex. That's not humanitarianism, it's selfishness. And so is assisted death. From 1998 to 2020, more than 5,300 Americans died by assisted suicide in Oregon, Washington, DC and Hawaii, three places where it was then legal. A 2022 study found that 95% of them were white, mostly college-educated. Almost all, 85%, had cancer or a neurological disease and were in hospice or palliative care. That's the image the 81 New York Assembly members who voted last week to legalize what they euphemistically call 'Medical Aid in Dying' want you to believe. Yet the experience of Canada paints a far more disturbing picture. When Canada first legalized assisted death in 2016, it was strictly limited to the terminally ill — but that wasn't enough for the suicide advocates, who sued to stretch the rules. Today, Canadians can request MAiD even when 'death is not reasonably foreseeable' — and nearly 50% of those requests come from the poor and the vulnerable. The totals are startling: 10,000 Canadians died by assisted suicide in 2021 alone — the same year the program was opened to those with incurable, but not terminal illnesses. In 2022 the number rose to more than 13,000. One of them, a 51-year-old woman called 'Sophia' in a 2024 report from the Ontario Coroner's Office, chose to die because her chemical sensitivities made life in her apartment unbearable. 'The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless and a pain in the ass,' Sophia said. An Ontario psychiatrist offered death to a man diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease who had a history of mental illness and drug use. 'You should do the right thing and consider MAiD,' a nurse told Heather Hancock of Alberta, who has cerebral palsy. 'You're being selfish. You're not living, you're merely existing.' The British Columbia oncologist who diagnosed Allison Ducluzeau's abdominal cancer in 2023 offered her death — but refused to authorize surgery or chemotherapy through Canada's single-payer health-care system. She paid for out-of-pocket treatment in the US, and lived. In Quebec, doctors can issue 'advance directives' for dementia patients so they can essentially be euthanized. Now the Dignity with Dying advocacy group wants Canada's program extended to terminally ill 'mature minors' under age 18. By 2027, Canada's mentally ill will become eligible to end their suffering by assisted suicide for that reason alone. Canada's government gone so far as to create a coloring book for children to help adults explain that they're going to kill themselves. It's a death cult, plain and simple. Assisted suicide is the worst idea since child sacrifice. Sacrifice is exactly what it is. We don't want to comfort our sick or pay for their care. We don't want to look in their faces and acknowledge what death is. We're so afraid of confronting the end of life that we want to hasten it as it approaches. Yet the consciousness of death is part of what makes us human. Tending to our dying is an honor — one we were deprived of, and agonized about, during COVID. There's nothing humane about turning our healers into merchants of death, or in giving sick people the idea that killing themselves is their best and noblest option. New York voters must realize that MAiD for the terminally ill is just where it starts. Vermont's law mandated that only state residents could obtain assisted suicide — but in 2023, a Connecticut woman sued and won the right to end her life there. Oregon, too, has abandoned its residency requirement. Just as Canada started with strict limits, whatever boundaries Albany may erect will surely lapse. Each of us gets our short time on Earth with hope for connection to each other, to ourselves, to the universal great beyond in which every culture in some form or another believes. The truth is, no matter what our challenges, we must face every day we're given with as much strength, courage, love and kindness as we can muster. Life is not optional. It is not for us to determine how long our lives get to be, or how short. California, Maine, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, DC and Washington state have fallen for legislation that rejoices in a culture of death. Don't let New York be next. Libby Emmons is the editor-in-chief at the Post Millennial.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
LIVE STREAMING: News 8 First at 4
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — News 8 First at 4 is live streaming as UEFA Champions League soccer is on WROC. The Real ID deadline is here. We'll let you know what kind of wait you can expect. Medical Aid in Dying law is about to pass in Albany – just how would it work? And we'll have some good and not-so-good business news. 'A rollercoaster': 12-year-old remains hospitalized after hit-and-run, mother launches GoFundMe Rolls-Royce readies for an electric era LIVE STREAMING: News 8 First at 4 MCSO: Drunk driver arrested after causing rollover crash in Henrietta Have a look at Starbucks' first 3D-printed store in the US News 8 at 5 p.m. is scheduled to air on time after soccer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'The cost of living is too damn high for Southern Tier families,' Gov. Hochul promises money back in pockets for Southern Tier taxpayers
SOUTHERN TIER, N.Y. (WETM) — Following a general agreement reached by lawmakers in Albany on the 2026 budget, New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday celebrated the deal to put money back in the pockets of thousands of workers in the Southern Tier. The budget agreement, which still needs to be voted on by the state legislature, would put thousands of dollars back in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of Southern Tier families over the coming year and beyond, according to a release from the governor's office. How would this happen? In the budget agreement for fiscal year 2026, Governor Hochul plans to cut taxes for nearly 215,000 middle-class families in the Southern Tier to the lowest level in 70 years, the release said. Will Albany pass Medical Aid in Dying? This plan would cut taxes for more than 78% of all tax filers in the Southern Tier, bringing nearly $23 million in tax relief annually. Governor Hochul believes that putting money back into the pockets of families in the Southern Tier can help offset the high cost of living. 'The cost of living is too damn high for Southern Tier families, so I promised to put more money in your pockets, and we got it done,' Governor Hochul said. 'Putting thousands of dollars back in the pockets of families means helping Southern Tier residents afford the rising costs of groceries, raising kids, and just enjoying life,' She said. The budget agreement outlines an increase to New York's Child Tax Credit. This credit would expand statewide and help 51,000 Southern Tier families by giving them an annual tax credit of up to $1,000 per child under four years old, and $500 per child ages four to 16, Governor Hochul's office said. NY budget deal includes child tax credit, discovery law changes This would be the largest expansion to the child tax credit in New York's history, benefitting around 89,000 children in the Southern Tier, and helping cut child poverty statewide by around 8%. Inflation is another thing causing frustration amongst families in the Southern Tier and across the country, but the governor's budget plans to provide some relief. If passed, the state would send inflation refund checks up to $400 to 251,000 households in the Southern Tier. The state estimates this would put $66.7 million back into the pockets of families who need it the most. 'When I said your family is my fight, I meant it, and I'll never stop fighting for you,' Governor Hochul said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Illinois lawmakers discuss whether to legalize 'medical aid in dying'
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) — Illinois lawmakers are considering whether to legalize 'Medical Aid in Dying,' a process where doctors prescribe lethal medication to terminally-ill patients. A State Senate Committee heard testimony from dying cancer patients, disability advocates and physicians on both sides of the issue. The measure includes a required waiting period before being given the lethal drugs. The patient then administers the drugs on their own at a time of their choosing. This is similar to laws passed in 10 other states and Washington D.C.. The bill could come up for consideration this spring. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
