Assisted suicide was legalized in three US states in 2025. Are you concerned?

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In 2025, assisted suicide was legalized in Delaware, Illinois and New York. This means that there are now 13 US states plus Washington DC that permit assisted suicide. The 13 states include California, Illinois and New York, three of the six most populated states in America.

This is tragic and will result in many early deaths and will lead to the further medical abandonment of people in need.

Previous to this year, the last state that legalized assisted suicide was New Mexico in 2021.

Are you concerned? I am concerned.

I watched the recent online US assisted suicide lobby political meeting. During the meeting the assisted suicide lobby outlined that, in 2026, there will be at least 18 states with bills to legalize assisted suicide. 

We are very concerning with some of the listed states which included: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada and Virginia. There are other states that the assisted suicide lobby are focusing on that are less likely to legalize assisted suicide in 2026 including (but not limited to) Arizona and Florida.

Our allies have been very successful in the past few years but the issue seems to be changing How are we to respond?

Let's look at the most recent successful campaign. 

The Slovenian people voted on an assisted suicide referendum on Sunday, November 23, 2025 and voted to overturn the assisted suicide bill that was passed in the Slovenian legislature in July 2025. More than 53.5% of the voters rejected the assisted suicide law.

This was a great victory, that was accomplished by a small group of committed citizens who stuck to their talking points. They achieved the victory for people who are sick, people with disabilities and pensioners against all odds, as they were up against the government and a well funded death lobby.

Slovenia is not the United States, but the principles in the successful campaign will transport to North America.

They weren't afraid to call it what it is. They used the term poisoning. Assisted suicide is to provide a lethal concoction to poison a person to death. 

The never used the language of the other side. The other side continuously lied about what the assisted suicide law said or what assisted suicide is. The campaign focused on telling the truth and challenging the lies.

They called assisted suicide, health care reform. Most jurisdictions require health care reform to enable a more equitable provision of care. Assisted suicide poisons a person to death. Dead people don't need health care.

The called assisted suicide pension reform. Slovenia, like most jurisdictions, invest a significant portion of their budget into the pension system. Assisted suicide poisons a person to death. Dead people don't collect pensions.

Proper medical care. The other side focused on suffering. The campaign opposing assisted suicide talked about proper care, and explained that assisted suicide forces people, who cannot attain proper medical care, to be poisoned to death.

The Slovenian campaign was more aggressive than most campaigns, but they won even though they were massively out-spent.

The take-away from the Slovenian referendum is that people innately oppose killing people, but you must be willing to state what assisted suicide is. The Slovenians built their campaign on a few key talking points and stuck to them. Hiding behind nice language or presenting the issue in a way that seems more socially acceptable avoids the reality that assisted suicide is about killing people by poison.

I am not afraid to say that I oppose killing people.