Medical Aid in Dying a compassionate option

“It was a blessing at the end” are the words we hear so often when offering condolences to the family of friends who died. Imagine the level of suffering that would cause family to consider the death of a loved one a “blessing.”

That suffering is often needless and could be prevented if New York joins other states in enacting the Medical Aid in Dying bill currently pending in the state Legislature. The bill would allow mentally capable adults with six months to live to take medication to end their life peacefully and painlessly.

When someone is already dying of a terminal illness, this clearly is not suicide. It is a compassionate alternative that gives us control over how we die when the choice to live is no longer an option.

Having watched the unnecessarily slow, difficult deaths of my mother, brother and two close friends, I know first-hand that hospice often cannot adequately manage end-oflife pain, despite the efforts of their caring and compassionate doctors and nurses.

If I were diagnosed with a terminal illness, it would give me great comfort to know that I could end my life peacefully and painlessly surrounded by family in the comfort of home. All New Yorkers deserve that option.

Rachel Berk Loudonville