Groups of Western New Yorkers are traveling to Albany Monday to advocate for and against a “death with dignity” bill in the state Assembly’s Committee on Health.

One group is going to fight not for their lives but for their deaths.

They say the legislation will give people with terminal illnesses a choice in how they spend their final days.

The Medical Aid in Dying Act would allow people with a terminal illness expected to live less than six months to end their own life with special medication if they choose.

Another group left from Buffalo at 5:30 a.m. Monday to oppose the legislation.

They say it normalizes killing, suicide and preys on the weak and vulnerable and creates a slippery slope.

The bill contains strict provisions about how to qualify and obtain the medication, and patients would have to take it without help.  Similar laws have been proposed in past years in the state legislature.

Only five states and the District of Columbia have death with dignity laws.