NEW YORK – New York may be one week away from a vote to let terminally ill people choose when they die. 10 states already have medical aid in dying laws and New York is one of 19 states considering it.

“It’s not a choice between suicide and living,” said Rachel Remmel, an advocate for medical aid in dying. “It’s not suicide. They’re going to die. It’s just a choice over the manner of death.”

Remmel’s brother Ethan was a father of two, a professor in Washington state and a Red Sox fan. He came home from a family vacation in Mexico with a stomach ache that turned out to be stage 4 colon cancer. He was 40 years old.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “So young.”

Rachel Remmel: “Yeah, and that was really hard. He very much wanted to live.”

Ethan’s cancer spread to his bones which caused severe pain.

“He got to a point where he couldn’t even cuddle his little kids,” Remmel said.

It was 2010 and at the time Washington was one of two states with a medical aid in dying law. Ethan had a terminal illness, he was an adult, he was mentally competent and he had six months to live. So he qualified and chose to take the pills that stopped his heart.

Ethan wrote a blog documenting the end of his life. His last post was titled “Farewell.” Click here to read his blog.

Since that day, Remmel has advocated for the same law in New York. It’s come up 11 times without a vote but the New York Post reports the Assembly speaker says the bill “has the votes to pass” maybe “as soon as next week.”

“We’ve got six terminally ill individuals that are counting on the legislature to take action this year to stop the suffering,” said Corinne Carey, Sr. Campaign Dir. Compassion and Choices.

“At a time in New York where our vulnerable populations and disabled communities are at risk because of other things going on here, I think it’s very dangerous,” said Kristen Curran, Dir. of Gov’t Relations, NYS Catholic Conference.

The governor hasn’t taken a public stance on this issue but News10NBC got this statement from her office: “Governor Hochul will review the legislation if it passes both houses of the Legislature.”

If a medical proxy is involved, it usually means the patient is incapacitated. The bill says the dying person has to make the decision at the time and physically ingest the pills themselves. It does not impact their life insurance because doctors will put the underlying illness, like stage 4 cancer in Ethan’s case, as the cause of death.

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