Assisted Dying has been legalised in New York and Illinois. Their respective Governors have now signed the new Bills. They will become operative in New York in August 2026 and in Illinois the following month.
In both states, the new legislation will allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to request assistance to end their lives.
Also, there will need to be two requests for an assisted suicide, each separated by a five day waiting period.
Whilst these changes clearly represent progress on the part of the wider Assisted Dying movement, they have nonetheless been greeted with a degree of disappointment. It had been hoped, in New York particularly, that the “local residents only” provision might not apply. Such hopes were not realised. In some states, like Vermont, it is possible for residents from elsewhere to apply for medical assistance in dying. Being relatively small states, however, it is usually very difficult for them to have a wide choice of physicians with whom any newcomers can register. New York, of course, is far bigger and has a much larger number of doctors. However, the new legislation specifically stipulates that its provisions are for NY residents only. The restriction is not quite so specific in Illinois but is expected to apply nonetheless.
The Swiss clinics are not expecting these changes to have any effect upon the demand for their services. US citizens now account for a large and rapidly rising share of the 750 (or so) non-Swiss cases currently handled each year.
