Inside the Sausage Factory: Reflections on Decades of Making State Health Policy

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Richard Gottfried, the longest-serving NYS assemblyman in history, will reflect on his five decades of playing a pivotal role in shaping health policy and on the increasingly important role of states in this area.

Speaker:

Richard ("Dick") Gottfried was first elected to the NYS Assembly in 1970 while he was still a student at Columbia Law School. He served as the Assemblymember for Manhattan's West Side for over 50 years, the longest serving Assemblymember in New York history.

Assemblymember Gottfried has had an enormous influence on legislation and regulations of interest to bioethics professionals. To name a few examples, he was the key sponsor of:

  • The Family Health Care Decisions Act, which authorized surrogate decision-making for patients who lack capacity;
  • The Palliative Care Education and Training Act and Palliative Care Information Act
  • NY's Medical Marijuana Law
  • The Medical Aid in Dying Act, which was enacted a few years after he retired

He also sponsored bills on among other bioethical issues, DNR orders, health care proxies, anatomical gifts, human subjects research, confidentiality, and more.

And notably, he fought passionately for many years for a New York single payer universal health care law – the New York Health Act. That fight goes on.

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