Doctor-Assisted Death Is Legal in 10 States. Could New York Be No. 11?

The sounds of protest came forcefully from the Assembly chamber gallery, the chants echoing the words emblazoned on handmade banners that were held aloft: “Stop the suffering, pass the bill!”

But as New York State troopers began to remove some of the protesters — some holding canes, others slowed by the effects of cancer treatment — it was clear that this demonstration held personal and immediate resonance to those participating.

The protest was the latest in an increasingly desperate series of demonstrations aimed at persuading state legislators to pass a bill that would legalize so-called medical aid in dying, allowing terminally ill people access to life-ending medication for the first time in the state.

New York is one of 19 states where lawmakers are considering bills that would legalize medical aid in dying, a practice that is legal in 10 states and Washington, D.C.

The bill in New York would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults with no more than six months to live to request prescriptions from their doctors for life-ending medication. The patients would have be able to ingest the medication on their own, and only the person seeking to die could request the prescription.

“I’m not someone who enjoys conflict or who has much experience in civil disobedience,” said Jules Netherland, a protester who was detained in the Capitol. “But I really believed this was the only way to get people’s attention.”