ALBANY, NY (607NewsNow) – The Medical Aid in Dying Act will be law in New York.

On December 17, Governor Kathy Hochul announced an agreement with the State Legislature to pass the long-debated bill that will help terminally ill residents with less than six months to live.

“New York has long been a beacon of freedom, and now it is time we extend that freedom to terminally ill New Yorkers who want the right to die comfortably and on their own terms,” said Hochul. “My mother died of ALS, and I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and being powerless to stop it. Although this was an incredibly difficult decision, I ultimately determined that with the additional guardrails agreed upon with the legislature, this bill would allow New Yorkers to suffer less – to shorten not their lives, but their deaths.”

As Hochul alludes to, the legislation includes multiple protections to ensure patients are not coerced into using the service, and no doctor or religiously affiliated health facility is forced to offer it. The additional guardrails announced on Wednesday include:

• A mandatory waiting period of 5 days between when a prescription is written and filled
• An oral request by the patient for medical aid in dying must be recorded by video or audio
• A mandatory mental health evaluation of the patient seeking medical aid in dying by a psychologist or psychiatrist
• A prohibition against anyone who may benefit financially from the death of a patient from being eligible to serve as a witness to the oral request or an interpreter for the patient
• Limiting the availability of medical aid in dying to New York residents
• Requiring that the initial evaluation of a patient by a physician be in person
• Allowing religiously oriented home hospice providers to opt out of offering medical aid in dying
• Ensuring that a violation of the law is defined as professional misconduct under the Education Law
• Extending the effective date of the bill to six months after signing to allow the Department of Health to put into place regulations required to implement the law, while also ensuring that health care facilities can properly prepare and train staff for compliance

The Medical Aid in Dying Act has been discussed and debated across the state for nearly a decade. State Senator Brad Holyman-Sigal of NY’s 47th District calls its passage historical.

“This agreement of Medical Aid in Dying is a monumental victory for every New Yorker who has wished to peacefully end their suffering from a terminal illness,” said Holyman-Sigal. “Since we first introduced this legislation in nine years ago, I have consistently said this bill is not about ending life, it’s about shortening death. I’m proud that New York is now the 13th state, along with Washington D.C., that will offer expanded end-of-life care so that terminally ill New Yorkers gain greater autonomy over how much pain and suffering they must endure.”

The bill is due to be signed in January and will take effect six months later.

You can read more about the agreement here, and more from Governor Hochul here.