Advocates File Lawsuit Against NYS To Clarify Law On Doctor-Assisted Suicide

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two patient advocacy groups have brought a lawsuit against New York State, asking the court to declare that doctor-assisted suicide is legal.

Lead counsel and executive and legal director of the Disabilities Right Legal Center, Kathryn Tucker, told 10101 WINS the lawsuit is about clarifying the law in the state.

"So we're trying to establish that a mentally competent, terminally ill patient is able to ask their physician for a prescription for medicine they could ingest to achieve a peaceful death," Tucker said. "It's not clear whether patients can make that choice in the state of New York."

During a news conference Wednesday, patients and doctors in support of the lawsuit asked the court to declare that patients facing the end of life have a right under the state Constitution to make autonomous decisions about their bodies.

Dr. Timothy E. Quill is one of the physician plaintiffs in the suit. Back in 1991, Quill published a medical journal article describing how he prescribed a lethal dose of sleeping pills for a leukemia patient.

"Most clinicians would be fearful of prescribing that because of the ambiguity of the law right now," Quill told 1010 WINS. "So you're really hamstrung to some degree in New York compared to some states like Oregon and Washington."

A grand jury refused to indict Quill in the case. He argues doctors need more ways to help the dying.

"Some of those patients really get ready for death now, and they want us to try to respond to that and this case is about trying to expand the ways that we can respond to such patients," he said.

Steven Goldenberg is dying from AIDS related diseases.

"I know the end is very near, and I definitely want to have dignity going out," he said.

Goldenberg said that's why he joined the lawsuit.

Another plaintiff, Sara Myers, has ALS also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

"I value life enough to know that I don't want to put anyone else in legal jeopardy because I might want to say enough is enough," she said, "When the time comes I want to be able to gather up my loved ones around me and visit."

As CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a named defendant had no comment on the suit, but opponents of Aid In Dying say legalization of what they call doctor assisted suicide will only lead to abuse.

"It always goes down the path to people who are not terminally ill. People who might be depressed, for example in Colorado there's no provision to screen for depression. It always gets to the most vulnerable people, and that's what dangerous about this," Bill Donohue, the Catholic League, said.

Goldenberg's doctor Howard Grossman believes it's more dangerous and inhumane to not give terminally ill patients an option to die comfortably on their own terms.

"We can take care fo you all the rest of the time with amazing intervention, including things that are really painful, but now when they come to us I have to say 'sorry, you're on your own,'" he said.

"I see the day coming when I can no longer have the strength to fight my numerous ailments," Goldenberg added.

Currently, a doctor in New York can face manslaughter charges for helping a terminally ill patient take their own life.

New Jersey, California, and Colorado are considering bills that would legalize aid in dying.