End of Life Choices New York is a group that advocates for access to legal physician-assisted suicide and similar forms of medically assisted dying including starvation, which it terms “voluntary stopping eating and drinking.” ¹ It has advocated legislation legalizing assisted suicide in New York ² and offered advice on advance directives for the terminally ill who wish to stop receiving care. ³

Background

End of Life Choices New York is an advocacy group founded in 1999. Among its community partners and funders it lists the Network of the National Libraries and Medicine, a network coordinated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Open Society Foundations. Other community partners include Queens Public Library, national aid-in-dying advocacy group Compassion and Choices, and Harlem Children’s Zone. ⁴

Formerly the New York affiliate of the national physician-assisted suicide advocacy group Compassion and Choices, End of Life Choices split off in 2015 and received a three-year $300,000 matching grant through 2015 to 2017 from Open Society Foundations to fund its advocacy. ⁵ After this grant, the group claims “approximately half of our budget comes from foundations and half from individuals.” ⁶

Activities

End of Life Choices has advocated that the New York State Legislature approve the Medical Aid in Dying Act, a bill that would allow a terminally ill patient to receive physician-assisted suicide through the administration of life-ending medication. ⁷ Additionally, the bill provides legal protections to healthcare providers who prescribe a patient medication that hastens their death. ⁸ The group planned an April 2023 “Lobby Day” in Albany, New York to pressure lawmakers to approve the Medical Aid in Dying Act. ⁹

The group has offered advice on what it terms as “Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking” as a “legal option to hasten death.” ¹⁰ The nonprofit characterizes the process, in which the patient dies by dehydration, as a “peaceful and meaningful experience.” ¹¹ It has argued that physician-assisted suicide is a right and that its illegality in New York is inequitable because “minoritized New Yorkers are more likely to suffer.” ¹²

In 2021, End of Life Choices supported a bill in the New York State Senate that would give health care providers authority over all the nutrition and hydration decisions of a patient, ¹³ which was criticized by some as giving health care agents power to deny dementia patients food and water. ¹⁴

End of Life Choices provides advance directives for a terminally ill patient to describe how they desire to be treated. ¹⁵ The advance directive for dementia patients includes an option in which the patient can request not to be fed by hand “even if I appear to cooperate in being fed by opening my mouth.” ¹⁶

Litigation

In 2015, End of Life Choices backed a lawsuit, Myers v. Schneiderman, that sought to establish physician-assisted suicide as a constitutional right in the New York State Constitution. ¹⁷ In 2017, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that New York’s Constitution did not contain a right to assisted suicide. ¹⁸

Leadership

End of Life Choices’ clinical director, Judith Schwarz, is featured in videos on the “Dying in America” website explaining the process of controlling one’s death by no longer eating and drinking and “how helping a friend die changed my life’s work.” ¹⁹

1. “Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/education/resources/vsed/vsed_overview/
2. “Medical Aid in Dying.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/advocacy/proposed-legislation/aid-in-dying/
3. “Specific Advance Directives.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/directives/specific-directives/
4. “Community Partners & Funders.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/end-of-life-choices-new-york/partners-funders/
5. “Our Mission.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/end-of-life-choices-new-york/mission/
6. “Our Mission.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/end-of-life-choices-new-york/mission/
7. “Medical Aid in Dying.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/advocacy/proposed-legislation/aid-in-dying/
8. “A02383 Summary.” New York State Assembly. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld&leg_video&bn=A02383&term=2017&Summary=Y&Memo=Y&Text=Y%5C
9. “Lobby Day has been Rescheduled.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023.  https://endoflifechoicesny.org/lobby-day-has-been-rescheduled/
10. “Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023.  https://endoflifechoicesny.org/education/resources/vsed/vsed_overview/
11. “End of Life Matters.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023.   https://endoflifechoicesny.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Winter-2021-Newsletter.pdf
12. “End of Life Equity.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023.  https://endoflifechoicesny.org/equity/
13. “End of Life Matters.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023.   https://endoflifechoicesny.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Winter-2021-Newsletter.pdf
14. “Legislation Would Deny Dementia Patients Food and Water.” Albany Update. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://www.albanyupdate.com/legislation-would-deny-dementia-patients-food-and-hydration/
15. “Specific Advance Directives.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/directives/specific-directives/
16.  ^[1] “About the Advance Directive for Receiving Oral Food and Fluids in Dementia.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/3_24_18-Dementia-adv-dir-w-logo-no-donation-language.pdf
17. “Litigation.” End of Life Choices New York. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://endoflifechoicesny.org/advocacy/litigation/
18.  ^[1] “Myers v. Schneiderman.” Justia. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/court-of-appeals/2017/77.html
19. “Judith Schwarz, RN MSN PhD.” Dying in America. Accessed April 5, 2023. https://www.dyinginamerica.org/subject/judith-schwarz-rn-msn-phd/