RIGHT TO DIE DIVIDES COURT.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: JOHN CAHER - Staff writer

ALBANY -- In the context of a relatively minor right-to-die case, two judges on New York's highest court renewed a legal-public policy debate Thursday that has troubled the judiciary for years.

Associate Judges Stewart F. Hancock Jr., the oldest jurist on the Court of Appeals, and Joseph W. Bellacosa, one of the youngest, agreed with the decision in a case that said a man has to pay for the prolonged care of his comatose wife even though he objected to the treatment. But they differed on the way the court should approach difficult right-to-die matters.

Hancock, 70, who has long been uneasy with the state's and the court's strict position on right-to-die issues, wants the law liberalized to make it easier for family members or surrogates of hopelessly ill patients to terminate treatment. He labeled current rules, largely established through Court of Appeals decisions, …