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QATAR — Regardless of who is fouled, the goalie always takes the punishment for the team: PSG's goalkeeper Matvey Safonov stops a ball in the penalty shootout during the FIFA Intercontinental Cup final soccer match between Flamengo and Paris Saint-Germain in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.

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After a decade-long effort, New York is set to make it easier for terminally ill patients to decide how to end their lives. Governor Kathy Hochul announced she will sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act on Wednesday. The legislation is expected to become law in January and come into effect six months later, making New York the 13th state in the country to authorize a physician’s assistance in dying, under strict conditions.

The bill allows mentally-competent adults who have been diagnosed with six or fewer months to live to request a cocktail of drugs that will end their life. Patients must give oral and written approval and gain the permission of three doctors, among a litany of other measures and safeguards.

Hochul, a practicing Catholic who previously opposed the bill, called her change of heart one of the most difficult decisions of her tenure, and credited it to the testimonies of advocates and patients. In an essay published in the Albany Times Union on Wednesday, the governor explained her reasoning in deeply personal terms. “I watched my own mom die from ALS,” Hochul wrote. “I watched that vicious disease steal away the strong woman who raised me as it took her ability to walk, to eat, to speak and, ultimately, to live. I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and feeling powerless to stop it.”

Advocates of the bill argue that the law will extend a measure of compassion to consenting adults who wish to end their lives with dignity. The bill’s opponents, headed primarily by Republican politicians and the Catholic Church, argue that it violates basic moral, social and religious principles. Both sides have lobbied aggressively over the last decade, since Assemblywoman Amy Paulin first introduced the measure in 2016.

“This new law signals our government’s abandonment of its most vulnerable citizens, telling people who are sick or disabled that suicide in their case is not only acceptable, but is encouraged by our elected leaders,” the New York State Catholic Conference wrote in a statement.

“There’s a lot of religious conflict in me, the way I was raised,” Hochul said during a Wednesday press conference. “I was taught that God is merciful and compassionate, and so must we be.”

Many Democratic elected officials issued full-throated support for the legislation. “This agreement on 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 State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who co-sponsored the bill, in a statement. 

Medical aid in dying has broad support among New Yorkers, according to recent polls. 

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