Once legal, the assisted suicide lobby will pressure to expand the law.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

New York officially instituted their assisted suicide law on August 5 (yesterday). The assisted suicide lobby pressured New York legislators for 10 years before New York finally legalized death by lethal poison.

The assisted suicide lobby will soon begin to lobby New York politicians to expand the law.

Kevin Dias, an assisted suicide lobby leader told Katelyn Cordero in an article published in Politico on August 5 that:

while they were disappointed by additional safeguards added through negotiations — such as the residency requirement and mental health evaluation — his organization has worked closely with the state on the implementation process.

Dias is referring to the fact that the original New York assisted suicide bill: 

• did not have a residency requirement, meaning anyone from anywhere could die by assisted suicide in New York,
• did not have a reflection period, meaning it allowed a same day death,
• did not have a mental health evaluation, meaning, depressed people could die by assisted suicide.

Based on the comments by Kevin Dias the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition expects that the assisted suicide lobby will demand expansions to the assisted suicide law, likely in 2028.

The assisted suicide lobby knows that it is more difficult to legalize assisted suicide than it is to expand the law once it is legal.

In 2019 Oregon passed Bill SB 0579 which expanded the assisted suicide law by giving doctors the right to waive the 15 day waiting period when a person is considered near to death.

In 2021 California passed Bill SB 380 which expanded the assisted suicide law by reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 48 hours. It forced doctors who oppose assisted suicide to be complicit in the act and it forced all medical institutions to post their policy on assisted suicide. 

In March 2022 a group of California doctors launched a court case designed to protect the conscience rights of medical professionals. In September 2022 US District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha ruled that the California End of Life Options Act that was amended by Bill SB 380, violated First Amendment rights of doctors by requiring them to participate in assisted suicide.

In 2022 Vermont expanded their assisted suicide law by removing the 48 hour waiting period, (allowing same day death), removing the requirement that examinations be done in person, (allowing approvals by telehealth), and extending legal immunity to anyone who participates in the act.

In 2023 Washington State expanded their assisted suicide law by allowing physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe lethal poison, reducing the waiting period to 7 days and forcing healthcare institutions and hospices to post their assisted suicide policies.

In 2023 Hawaii expanded their assisted suicide law by reducing the waiting period from 20 days to 5 days, it allows the waiting period to be waived if the person is considered near to death and it allows advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe lethal poison.

In 2023 Oregon expanded their assisted suicide law by passing House Bill 2279 which removed their state assisted suicide residency requirement.

In 2023 Vermont also expanded their assisted suicide law by passing Senate Bill 26 which removed their state assisted suicide residency requirement.

Oregon and Vermont removed their assisted suicide residency requirements in response to assisted suicide lobby legal challenges. By removing the state residency requirement assisted suicide has become a national issue since anyone in America can die by assisted suicide in Oregon and Vermont.

In 2024 Colorado passed Senate Bill 24-068 which allowed advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe assisted suicide, reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 7 days, and allowing the doctor or advanced practise registered nurse to waive the waiting period if the person is deemed to be near to death (same day death).

In 2025 Maine passed bill LD613 which expanded the state assisted suicide law by reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 5 days.

Euthanasia expansions also happened in Canada, where euthanasia and assisted suicide were legalized in June 2016 (Bill C-14) and then expanded with Bill C-7 in March 2021. Bill C-7 removed the terminal illness requirement, removed the 10-day reflection period, allowed euthanasia for incompetent people who were previously approved and extended euthanasia to mental illness alone. The implantation of euthanasia for mental illness alone has been delayed until March 2027.

Groups that support euthanasia will state that Bill C-7 was based on the Truchon court decision in Quebec, but Bill C-7 expanded the law further than Truchon required. 

Expansion occurs for many reasons

When  examining the expansions of assisted suicide laws in America we recognize several key themes. There is the removal of waiting periods, allowing non-physicians to do the act, and allowing non-residents to die by assisted suicide. 

Assisted suicide laws have also been expanded by redefining the language of the law.

In December 2017, Fabian Stahle, a Swedish researcher asked the Oregon Health Authority how they define terminal illness. Stahle learned that the Oregon Health Authority defined the six month terminal illness prognosis as including someone who may have a six month prognosis even if they reject effective medical treatment. This was clearly an expansion of the law based on redefining the language of the law. 

Once assisted suicide is legal, restrictions on the law are seen as discriminatory. 

Before assisted suicide is legal, everyone is equal under the law. Everyone is equally protected from being killed or equally protected from suicide. 

 

Once legal, people who do not "qualify" under the assisted suicide law will claim that the current law lacks equality and is discriminatory because it doesn't equally apply to all people. 

 

We oppose killing people. 

We don’t just oppose killing people who are terminally or chronically ill, but we oppose killing people. 

We always support caring for people and never support abandoning them to death.