Relates to former patients interred at present and former state mental health hospital cemeteries

Showing the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

• Democratic8
• Republican3

This bill has cosponsors from more than one party.

Shown in neutral colors by design; Agora is non-partisan.

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Patricia Fahy says this is needed

For over 125 years, deceased former patients of New York State Mental Health Hospitals have been buried in unmarked or numbered graves in cemeteries associated with the hospitals. Present laws treat burial records as part of a clinical record and prevent interested persons from identifying and locating family members in order to memorialize them. Keeping their burial records sealed perpetuates an era of silence and shame. Many of these deceased are veterans who suffered because of their service to our country. Modern thinking and common-sense demand that in order to reduce the stigma of mental illness and restore dignity to those who suffered, we should allow these deceased former patients to be identified, provide the ability of interested parties to memorialize them, and return their name to them as other states have done. Much time has passed and many of the deceased do not have living immediate family members, but there are many individuals and groups who feel compelled to right this wrong and acknowledge these individuals as people with names, identities, and personal histories, rather than as anonymous numbers in forgotten grave- yards.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.