Terminal Cancer Patient Advocates For Death With Dignity Law In NY

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 16: Youssef Cohen speaks with a video crew for the "death with dignity" non-profit Compassion and Choices in his Manhattan apartment on March 16, 2016 in New York City. Cohen, 68, has an incurable cancer called mesothelioma and is advocating for the right to choose how and when he will die, proposed in New York State's End of Life Options Act, currently in front of the state legislature. Cohen is a professor of political science at New York University and is currently on sabbatical, due to his illness. He had his first bout with cancer in 2012 and has since undergone chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. He is currently taking immunotherapy infusions of the drug Keytruda in a final effort to fight the disease. The national "right to die" movement is also known as "death with dignity," or called "physician-assisted suicide" by opponents. It is now completely legal in 4 states, including California, where the new law goes into effect this June. If New York does not pass its legislation in time for Cohen's death, he and his wife say they are prepared to move to Oregon, the first state to make death with dignity legal, in order to insure that he dies without suffering. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)