New York convenes end-of-life commission

New York Attorney General Dennis C. Vacco has appointed a Commission on Quality Care at the End of Life, aimed at studying the legal, social, educational, and other barriers that prevent physicians from providing adequate care to patients in life’s final stages. Earlier this year Vacco argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of New York’s state law banning physician-assisted suicide. Promoting alternatives to suffering or suicide for the dying will be a major focus for this new state body.

The 19-member commission met for the first time in May, and looks forward to a busy working schedule, with monthly meetings and a report and recommendations due by next February. The panel includes Amber Jones, MEd, President of the New York State Hospice Association, J. Donald Schumacher, PsyD, President and CEO of the Hospice Association of Western New York, in Cheektowaga, and Peter Moberg-Sarver, director of Hospice of Central New York, in Syracuse.

"The Attorney General is very interested in a legislative outcome to improve medical access to pain medications," Jones says. New York also is focusing on surrogate decision making, with two bills in this year’s state legislature to extend surrogate decision-making rights to patients who do not create directives.