Albany, NY – With very little notice and few specific details, the Assembly Health Committee scheduled a vote on a bill to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide for the terminally ill today and approved the measure by a 14-11 vote. Now the bill moves on to the Codes Committee.

Assemblyperson Ellen Jaffee of Rockland, a member of the Health Committee, voted to approve the measure (A-10059).

The New York Alliance Against Assisted Suicide noted that the measure passed by only three votes.

“Thankfully, many members of the Health Committee have demonstrated their grave concern for vulnerable New Yorkers who may be harmed by this dangerous public policy, or worse yet, whose autonomy will be compromised and who will feel as though the healthcare system gives them no choice but to kill themselves,” said JJ Hanson, president of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund.

Read “Aid in dying bill passes Assembly Health Committee” (Times Union).