Life is precious, but it eventually ends for all of us. This includes about 150,000 New Yorkers each year. Most suffering can be controlled at the end of life, particularly with good palliative or hospice care. However, some people experience unbearable suffering. No one should have to. Every dying person who is mentally competent should have the right to die, if possible, in a way that she or he decides and controls, consistent with his or her values and beliefs. For those who are dying the issue is not whether they will die, but instead how they are going to die and who makes the decision. Medical aid in dying (MAID) should be an available option. It occurs when a terminally ill, mentally competent adult patient, who is likely to die within six months, takes prescribed medicines, which must be self-administered, to end suffering and achieve a peaceful death.