Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights statement on the ADA and assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The following message was released by the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on July 27, 2026.

As we mark the ADA's 36th anniversary, HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reaffirms a fundamental principle of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): people with disabilities have the same inherent dignity and equal worth as every other person.

The ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibit discrimination based on disability in many settings, including healthcare. Healthcare decisions must not be influenced by stereotypes, bias, or judgments that a person's life is less valuable because of disability. Steering an individual toward physician-assisted suicide because of disability or assumptions about that person's quality of life may constitute unlawful disability discrimination. The Affordable Care Act also prohibits the use of federal funds for physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing and protects health care providers and entities that decline to participate in those practices.

HHS OCR is committed to enforcing these protections and ensuring that people with disabilities are treated with dignity and respect and receive equal treatment under federal law. If you believe you have experienced disability discrimination in healthcare, you can file a complaint at: hhs.gov/ocr/complaints…

The HHS OCR statement upholds the equality of every American while correctly acknowledging that assisted suicide can be based on discrimination.

The statement also reinforces the federal law prohibiting funding for assisted suicide, euthanasia or mercy killing and the importance of protecting health care providers right to decline to participate in assisted suicide.

The statement focused on three points. Some people with disabilities have felt pressured to assisted suicide. Research has uncovered the fact that the federal law prohibiting funding for assisted suicide is being circumvented. Several state assisted suicide laws, including New York, undermine the right of health care workers to refuse to participate in killing by assisted suicide.