The widow of Marine-turned-anti-euthanasia activist J.J. Hanson is asking lawmakers to vote down a bid to legalize assisted suicide.
On Monday, Kris Hanson arrived at the statehouse in Albany to speak out against a legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to patients with terminal diagnoses—a practice supporters dub Medical Aid in Dying. Hanson’s husband J.J. campaigned across the country against the practice with the Patients Rights Action Fund while outliving his terminal diagnosis by more than three years. J.J. Hanson, a volunteer fireman and Iraq War veteran, succumbed to brain cancer in December 2017, surrounded by his family, including an infant son. Kris Hanson’s testimony before the Assembly Committee on Health fulfilled a deathbed promise to her husband.