Patients, physicians and advocacy groups filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court today, seeking to expand the civil rights of dying.
They want the courts to clarify the ability of a mentally competent, terminally patients to seek "aid in dying" from their physician if they desire.
They also want the courts to declare that the physician who provides the prescription should not be subject to prosecution.
Doctor assisted suicide is allowed in only five states in the country.
Dr. Timothy Quill from Center for Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics at the University of Rochester School of medicine is one of the plaintiffs.
He says he joined the lawsuit because relief of suffering must be available to patients, and it’s time New York clarifies that suffering, dying patients have an option.
Quill provided drugs for a patient in the 1990s who asked for assistance in dying.
He later wrote an article about it, but a grand jury chose not to prosecute.
Quill says he wants to be able to respect his patients' wishes to achieve a peaceful death should they want that option.