With your help…

Mandi Zucker

June 24, 2026

Live How You Like, Leave How You Like

Dear Friends,

Our campaign to raise $80,526 continues and with your support we are getting closer every day! Currently at $70,125 we have 6 weeks left to raise $10,401. And if I haven’t given you a compelling enough reason to support this campaign with a $25,000 bonus for achieving this goal, let me tell you one more thing we need your financial support for.

We are in the midst of creating a patient guide to medical aid in dying. This guide will provide all of the information needed for a patient to understand the complicated, multi-step process to safely, legally achieve a peaceful death. We have been hard at work researching other states’ processes and guides (some states have a guide, others do not). Obviously, ours will look a little different because our laws and landscape are different. We are creating a culturally-sensitive, accessible “how to” for people who are interested in considering this option. Obviously, this won’t replace our individual support on the phone and in person, but often times it’s a lot of information to absorb, and people need to have multiple avenues to comprehend and process all of this information.

Creating these guides takes time. And time is money. And the guides also have hard costs. For example, we use a professional program to create the guides so they look and feel welcoming, understandable and legible. We would like to print these guides and have them available at events and presentations, and we also want to mail them to individuals who need a hard copy in their home. If you are someone who likes to have things printed out, you probably can relate to the need for a hard-copy guide like this. And if you would like to make it free for others to have, now is your chance to make that happen. Each guide costs about $10 to print. So $100 means that 10 people can have access to this guide at no cost to them. It’s not a ton of money but it makes a large impact.

A few weeks ago, I told you about the cost of support individuals who are seeking information about medical aid in dying. As we continue to speak to more and more people every month, the need for a guide likes this also increases. Your donation makes that possible. Please provide any amount you can to keep our services available for free to anyone who needs it. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Mandi Zucker
Executive Director

In the News

Recent Events

You may have heard that a few disability rights groups are suing the state over the Medical Aid in Dying Law that will be implemented in August, arguing that the law discriminates against people with disabilities. Our former board member, David Hoffman, spoke with Spectrum News 1 to share the reasons that this lawsuit does not have any merit. You can watch the interview here.

End Notes

Updates

Medical Aid in Dying Implementation Barriers Across US Jurisdictions

Our friends at The Completed Life Initiative recently published a report highlighting the barriers and best practices of medical aid in dying across the country. There were several barriers to this practice identifies, including hospices and hospital systems that are not supportive of the practice, federal prohibition on funding of MAID-specific costs, lack of providers and a lack of education. To read more of this report, completed by Sarah J. Kiskadden-Bechtel, MBe, click here.

Upcoming Events

We have several upcoming events that we encourage you to join. Find one, or several, options that you connect to and join us!

Presentation for Pelham Seniors. June 29th at 1 PM. Duronco Town House, 20 Fifth Avenue, Pelham, NY.
Legacy League. July 9 at 10:00 AM on Zoom. Join us for a no-agenda hang out to talk about death and dying. Bring your curiosities, worries and fear and help us demystify and detaboo death! Register here.
Meet-n-Greet. July 13 at 3 PM on zoom. Join us to introduce yourself to EOLCNY and let us tell you about the work we are doing to support people at the end of their lives. Register here.
How we Love: A Family’s Journey Through Medical Aid in Dying. July 14th at 10 AM. Meet Sharon, a woman in NJ who shares how her father utilized MAID and how this experience allowed for many beautiful moments together leading up to his death. Register here.
Understanding Medical Aid in Dying: Clinical, Policy and Caregiver Perspectives. July 17 at 10 AM on zoom. In partnership with Yeshiva University, Mandi Zucker will be speaking along with Susan Hedlund, the Director of Supportive Care Initiatives at the Biller Family Foundation in Seattle, Washington, and Carol Abolafia, the daughter of a woman in NJ who used Medical Aid in Dying in November, 2024. 2 CEU Credit Hours are available. Register here.
Exit Matters: Medical Aid in Dying in New York. July 21 at 7 PM on zoom. In partnership with Patient Choices Vermont, we will talk ab0out the similarities and differences in the process and law between New York and Vermont. Being that these states border one another, it’s important to understand how you can use each state’s law, and what the restrictions are as well. Register for this free webinar here.

Update on Medical Aid in Dying Implementation

In collaboration with The Academy of Aid-in-Dying Medicine and a group of dedicated volunteers in our Implementation Committee, we have endorsed three policies for facilities to adapt as needed. These policies range from a full opt-out policy to comprehensive participation. You can find these policies on The Academy of Aid-in-Dying Medicine’s website, and on our website. Please encourage people in positions to create policy to visit the Academy’s website for policy and additional resources.

We now have at least three pharmacies across the state that have agreed to provide the prescriptions for medical aid in dying. These prescriptions are compounded and provided in a powdered form that the patient or caregiver then mixes with a liquid for the patient to drink. If you need assistance picking up the medications, preparing them or paying for them, please reach out to us for assistance.

The Department of Health has issued their proposed regulations on medical aid in dying, attached here. There is currently an open comment period that will end on August 3, two days prior to Implementation Day on August 5th.

Many of you have requested a copy of the updated law with Governor Hochul’s amendments. We are incredibly thankful to David Hoffman, JD and Robert N. Swindler, MA, JD, for putting together two documents that do just that. The first one, linked here, is the original bill language that integrates that governor’s enhanced amendments. The second one, linked here, is redlined to show the changes from the original language.

We continue to speak to patients who are interested in considering medical aid in dying and have already begun connecting them to physicians to pre-plan as much as they can which receiving quality care. We have also been able to connect patients with family members of people who used medical aid in dying in other states, so they can begin to learn what the process was generally like (although it will be slightly different in each state) and ask questions that only family and friends will be able to answer. We are honored to be able to coordinate this part of the process. If you are in need, please reach out to us! If you are a clinician of any sort (doctor, nurse, social worker, chaplain, pharmacist, volunteer, doula, or hospital/hospice system), please complete this survey. The answers to this survey will not be made public but will allow us to reach out to you to offer you the opportunity to connect with patients based on their needs. This survey has informed us already that we have strong interest from all sorts of clinicians in providing this care, including pharmacists, doctors, psychologists and end of life doulas.

Please continue to share the flyer highlighting our partnership with the Academy of Aid-in-Dying Medicine with anyone you think could benefit from resources and education. Together with The Academy, we are your go-to source for all things related to the implementation of excellent aid-in-dying care. Please reach out to us with questions, concerns and needs.

If you learn of trainings in your community, please forward them to us so we can reach out and let them know about the support we can provide. We are thrilled that we have been seeing trainings popping up and we want to support any organization to provide the best quality care possible.

We continue to receive many requests by major media outlets to interview people who are considering this option when it becomes available. This is an important way we can use the media to bring more awareness about this option. If you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and will likely be eligible to use medical aid in dying in the next 6-12 months, and you’d be willing to talk to the media either in print or on TV, please let me know. I can put you in touch with very sensitive reporters and producers who want to help share your story in a compassionate and dignified manner.

Ask Us Anything

Q: Is New York’s medical aid in dying law different than other states?

A: Fundamentally, all of the states that offer medical aid in dying int he US have very similar laws and similar requirements including that patients must be a mentally competent adult with a terminal diagnosis and a prognosis of 6 months or less to live. They must also be able to send-ingest the medication. There are some differences in waiting periods, who is able to prescribe medications, and who can be a witness to the verbal and written requests. We are happy to talk you through these differences (and will share them in the guide mentioned above once it is completed)

If you have a question you’d like answered, send it here!

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