Compassion & Choices Launches Billboard In Campaign to Pass NY’s Medical Aid in Dying Act in 2022
Compassion & Choices Launches First Billboard of Its
Campaign to Pass New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act in 2022
“Stop Needless Suffering. Pass Medical Aid in Dying.”
(Albany – November 16, 2021) Compassion & Choices today unveiled its first billboard for its ramped up campaign to make the Medical Aid in Dying Act (A.4321a/S.6471) the law of New York in 2022. The message on the billboard is concise and direct: “Stop needless suffering. Pass medical aid in dying.”
The billboard, which will be up at least through the holiday season, is visible to drivers heading to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport via the Kensington Expressway or Dick Road.
“Too many New Yorkers have suffered and are suffering while dying. I’ve lost friends and our cause has lost many who, as they were dying, desperately spent their final days, weeks and months trying to convince Albany lawmakers to do the right thing,” said Compassion & Choices Senior New York Campaign Director Corinne Carey. “The billboard is grim because for some dying New Yorkers their approaching deaths are grim – and scary, and painful. But lawmakers have the power to stop this needless suffering.
“The recent Marist poll continues to show that voters – Republicans and Democrats, upstaters and downstaters, regardless of their race – strongly support allowing the same option of medical aid in dying that is available in 10 other states and Washington, D.C., including our neighbors in Vermont and New Jersey,” Carey said. “There is very simply no legitimate policy or political reason for the Legislature and Governor not to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act early in 2022. That’s the message of the billboard and that’s the message lawmakers and the Governor will hear incessantly until it’s passed.”
The legislation is supported by numerous advocacy groups in the state including, among others: New York Civil Liberties Union, League of Women Voters of New York State, StateWide Senior Action Council, NYS Public Health Association, Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts, NOW-NY, ACT UP NY, Harlem United, Latino Commission on AIDS, Latinos for Healthcare Equity, the WESPAC Foundation, and SAGE NY, which advocates for and provides healthcare and other services to LGBT elders.
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Compassion & Choices is the nation’s oldest, largest and most active nonprofit organization committed to expanding and improving healthcare options at the end of life. Compassion & Choices New York is leading the campaign to give mentally capable, terminally ill New Yorkers the same legal option to request medical aid in dying that people in 10 other states – including New York neighbors Vermont and New Jersey – as well as Washington, D.C., currently have. For more information, visit: CompassionAndChoices.org/NewYork.
