A physician diagnosed with ALS credits access to Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) with saving his emotional life after receiving a terminal diagnosis in September 2023. The author, a 56-year-old chief clinical officer at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, describes the diagnosis as initially devastating, imagining a death from total paralysis while remaining mentally intact. After a year of emotional recovery supported by family, therapy, and meditation, he reports that knowledge of his ability to access MAiD through legal jurisdictions gave him the peace necessary to resume living.
Medical Aid in Dying and ALS
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is universally fatal, with most people dying within three to five years of diagnosis after experiencing total paralysis, loss of speech and eating ability, and ultimately the inability to breathe. MAiD allows terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to request a prescription for lethal medications. In the U.S., since Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act was signed in 1994 and took effect in 1997, similar laws have passed in 12 other states and the District of Columbia. People requesting MAiD must be mentally competent and self-ingest the medications. Most states require a mandatory waiting period and agreement from two doctors that criteria are met.
Impact and Future Advocacy
The author notes that nearly 90 percent of people choosing MAiD are already in hospice care, demonstrating that MAiD, hospice, and palliative care are not mutually exclusive. Knowledge that he can determine the timing of his death has freed him of “immeasurable degrees of fear and dread,” allowing him to return to activities he enjoys, including raising animals on a property in rural New York. In December 2025, Governor Kathy Hochul announced agreement on a MAiD law for New York, which the State Assembly and Senate must pass, taking effect six months after signing. The author has become an advocate for MAiD in states without such laws, noting that most people in the 37 states without MAiD lack resources to relocate elsewhere to access it.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://reason.com/2026/01/20/im-dying-of-als-knowing-i-can-decide-when-to-end-my-life-brought-me-back-from-the-dead/