678. Who Gets to Choose a “Good Death”?

New York is the latest state to legalize medical aid in dying. Stephen Dubner speaks with the governor who signed the law, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, a death doula — and an ethicist who thinks the very idea is wrong.

• SOURCES:

• Kathy Hochul (governor.ny.gov/about-governor-hochul), governor of New York.

• Suzanne O'Brien (doulagivers.com/meet-suzanne), death doula, founder of Doulagivers Institute.

• Al Roth (web.stanford.edu/~alroth), economist at Stanford University.

• Daniel Sulmasy (gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000…), physician, philosopher, director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.

• RESOURCES:

• Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work (amzn.to/4ek4g8A), by Al Roth (2026).

• "New York Moves to Allow Terminally Ill People to Die on Their Own Terms (nytimes.com/2025/06/09/nyregion/assisted-suici…)," by Grace Ashford (New York Times, 2025).

• The Good Death: A Guide for Supporting Your Loved One through the End of Life (amzn.to/44fxsJm), by Suzanne O'Brien (2025).

• The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691140…), by Neil Gorsuch (2009).

• EXTRAS:

• "Make Me a Match (Update) (freakonomics.com/podcast/make-me-a-match-update)," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

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