California 2023 report indicates that there were 884 reported assisted suicide deaths

 Approximately 925 Californians died by assisted suicide in 2023.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The 2023 California assisted suicide report was recently released indicating that there were 884 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023 and 4287 reported assisted suicide deaths since legalization in 2016.

As with previous years, the report implies that the deaths were voluntary (self-administered) but the information in the report does not address that subject.

California does not report assisted suicide death complications. This is important since the 2023 Oregon assisted suicide report indicated that there was almost a 10% complication rate.

The 2022 California assisted suicide report stated that there were 853 reported assisted suicide deaths. The 2023 report corrected the 2022 data and states that there were 890 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2022. That a difference of 37 reported deaths.

In 2022  there were 294 Californians who were approved for assisted suicide but their ingestion status was unknown. These people had received the lethal poison but the authorities did not know if they had died by assisted suicide, died by a natural death, or remained alive. 

Based on the 2023 report, we now know that at least 37 of the 294 (ingestion status unknown) died by assisted suicide in 2022 and 49 of the 294 died by assisted suicide in 2023. Of the remaining 208 people, whose ingestion status was unknown in 2022 it is likely that some of them died by assisted suicide but the death was not reported.

The 2023 report indicates that there are 276 Californians who received the lethal poison but whose ingestion status was unknown. Based on the yearly data we know that some of the 276 people have died by assisted suicide but the assisted suicide report was submitted late and some of them will die by assisted suicide in 2024. 

Based on the percentage of assisted suicide reports that were submitted late in previous years, it is likely that the 2024 report will indicate that approximately 925 Californians reportedly died by assisted suicide in 2023.

As stated earlier, it is likely that some of the 276 Californians who received the lethal poison but whose ingestion status is unknown are unreported assisted suicide deaths.

California uses a self-reporting system, meaning that it is impossible to know that a person died by assisted suicide when the medical professional fails to submit the assisted suicide report.

Who dies by assisted suicide?

The 2023 California assisted suicide report states that since legalization 87.6% of the reported assisted suicide deaths were White, 6.4% were Asian, 3.8% were Hispanic and less than 1% were black.

California's population data indicates that: 40% are Hispanic, 35% are White, 15% are Asian and .5% are Black. Clearly assisted suicide is an issue of white privilege.

The data suggests that the number of assisted suicide deaths in 2023 remained steady. Considering the massive growth in assisted suicide deaths from 2021 (523) to 2022 (890) the slower growth may be temporary. Nonetheless, as in previous years, when the law is being challenged the number of deaths moderates. 

In April 2023, The United Spinal Association, Not Dead Yet, Institute for Patients’ Rights, Communities Actively Living Independent and Free, Lonnie VanHook, and Ingrid Tischer launched a lawsuit to strike down the California assisted suicide law with the goal of the case going to the US Supreme Court to strike down assisted laws throughout the US. (Link to the complaint).

The case asserted that the assisted suicide act is a discriminatory scheme, which creates a two-tiered medical system in which people who are suicidal receive radically different treatment responses by their physicians and protections from the State depending on whether the person has what the physician deems to be a “terminal disease”—which, by definition, is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Link to the article). 

The case was denied by U.S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha but an appeal of Aenlle-Rocha's decision has been filed.