Countless New Yorkers suffer every day the New York State Legislature delays a vote on the Medical Aid in Dying Act. Each day until lawmakers adjourned for 2021, Compassion & Choices shared with lawmakers 60 Reasons to pass the bill NOW. Read each reason below, then urge your lawmakers to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act NOW.

See the advocates behind each reason in our "60 Reasons" booklet, linked here.

Reason #1: Because this isn't about politics. It's about peace at the end of life... 

Reason #2: Because those who are chronically subjected to health disparities deserve to learn about and have access to end-of-life options that can help them achieve peace, comfort, and dignity at the end of life...

Reason #3: So that no one’s final weeks are spent worrying about possible uncontrollable suffering at life’s end...

Reason #4: So that families can come together and celebrate a life well-lived as a loved one transitions on her own terms...

Reason #5: So that at the end of my life, I have the autonomy that I fought so hard for since my first day in a wheelchair...

Reason #6: So that no one's brother has to die alone to protect his family from prosecution...

Reason #7: So that no one's sister has to research the best way to take her own life...

Reason #8: So that no family has to watch their mother starve to death for 11 long and torturous days...

Reason #9: Because I have had patients who have suffered needlessly at the end of life, despite our best attempts to deliver excellent palliative care...

Reason #10: So those who believe in a loving god can deliver themselves into God's hands, exercising their own free will to end needless suffering...

Reason #11: So that a physician can honor their compassionate and ethical commitment to a patient's autonomy...

Reason #12: So that I might have peace of mind and avoid unbearable suffering in my final days like my brother was able to...

Reason #13: So that everyone can die in a way that's consistent with their own faith, values, and beliefs...

Reason #14: So that no one has to stand by helplessly as their husband repeatedly pleads: help me die...

Reason #15: Because giving me the option of medical aid in dying would free me to spend all my remaining energy just living, knowing that I would not end up in a dark hole of suffering...

Reason #16: So that no one has to watch their strong Marine brother wither away in a hospital bed and suffer needlessly at the end of life...

Reason #17: Because sometimes the greatest reverence for life is to end human suffering...

Reason #18: So that no one's Thanksgiving dinner ends with a shotgun to the head in the barn out back because nothing else could provide relief...

Reason #19: So that all New Yorkers have the opportunity to be masters of their own fate...

Reason #20: So that no one has to give that last dose of morphine and carry the burden of believing you've just ended your loved one's life...

Reason #21: So that when you know your time in this world will be cut short, you can live your life with less fear and more joy...

Reason #22: So that a beloved mother has the option to lie in her own bed, in her own home, held by her family as she takes her final breaths...

Reason #23: So that no one has to deal with the horror of her husband's failed attempt to end his own life...

Reason #24: Because an ethical review of the evidence and experience of over more than two decades has shown that there is absolutely no cause for concern...

Reason #25: So that no one is forced to be at someone else’s mercy for pain management and comfort care at the end of life after enduring countless treatments, procedures, and side effects in order to live as long as possible...

Reason #26: So that after more than 30 years of a vibrant life together, no one has to remember the final moments of a life well-lived as ones spent in agony...

Reason #27: Because as a Catholic who respects other people’s faiths, I believe it’s not for anyone to stand in the way of this compassionate option being available for someone else...

Reason #28: Because requests for medical aid in dying are not a failure of hospice or palliative care, they are an opportunity to improve the end-of-life care experience...

Reason #29: Because, while we didn't have a lot to say about how we got here, each of us should have autonomy in our decisions about how we leave...

Reason #30: So that all New Yorkers can determine how they manage their disease and their last days...

Reason #31: So that no New Yorker is left with only one option: starving themselves to death in order to have any end-of-life autonomy...

Reason #32: So that someone who has faced serious illness with resolute dignity and a will to keep living as long as she can is afforded the same dignity of the option to die on her own terms when there are no more treatment options left...

Reason #33: Because even excellent hospice care can't alleviate all suffering...

Reason #34: So that no one has to die in agony despite receiving world-class palliative care at a top NYC hospital...

Reason #35: So that no one has to worry when they open the front door that they'll find their girlfriend has taken her own life...

Reason #36: So that no one has to leave the home they love, their family, and their friends to die on their own terms...

Reason #37: So that no one is in the other room begging a doctor to increase pain medication when a loved one who asked for help to die takes her final breath...

Reason #38: So that no one's strong Irish Catholic dad has to beg for help to die...

Reason #39: Because New Yorkers deserve the same option of a peaceful death that my brother had because he lived in Washington State...

Reason #40: So that doctors can respond to each person’s unique clinical circumstances using their values and preferences rather than the doctor's own...

Reason #41: So that no one has to hear their husband ask her to shoot him to end unbearable suffering...

Reason #42: Because authorizing medical aid in dying brings conversations about end of life out of the shadows and leads to improvements in end-of-life care for everyone, even if they don’t use the law...

Reason #43: So that no one has to watch her once-vibrant husband starve to death...

Reason #44: So that no one’s daughter is robbed of precious, sacred time with their mother because of fear of suffering...

Reason #45: So that a daughter's promise to her mother that she won't have to suffer can be honored...

Reason #46: Because health justice means allowing people agency at the end of their lives...

Reason #47: So that no one has to consider breaking the law to grant their loved one’s last wish: to die in peace without needless suffering...

Reason #48: Because knowing I have the option of a peaceful death when all else fails will improve the quality of the time that I have left...

Reason #49: "Because preventing doctors from prescribing medication to a dying patient that they can take to end their lives peacefully causes unnecessary suffering and harm... / el evitar que los médicos receten un medicamento a un paciente que se está muriendo para terminar su vida pacíficamente, causa sufrimiento y daño innecesario....

Reason #50: So the last moments of a loved one’s life can be spent embracing them...

Reason #51: Because even those who wouldn’t want medical aid in dying for themselves believe that the option should be available to everyone...

Reason #52: So that despite the pain of losing a daughter, a father’s lasting memory can be of her peaceful death...

Reason #53: Because a daughter who is a doctor shouldn’t have to risk her medical practice to help her father avoid needless suffering...

Reason #54: Because medical aid in dying is not giving up on life, but allowing us to make our own decisions when the time comes...

Reason #55: Because no New Yorker should have to die from choking on their own vomit when people in other states have the compassionate option of medical aid in dying...

Reason #56: Because the decision about how to spend their last hours on this earth should belong to the person who is dying...

Reason #57: Because each year lawmakers fail to act, people without the compassionate option of medical aid in dying will suffer needlessly...

Reason #58: Because Black New Yorkers should have the power to determine what kind of care they want at the end of life...

Reason #59: Because families benefit when dying people can chart their own end-of-life journey...

Reason #60: Because every year lawmakers fail to act, more New Yorkers suffer...