California 2025 assisted suicide report. Inaccurate data, shoddy report.

Alex Schadenberg

The California assisted suicide report does not prove that all assisted suicide deaths are voluntary or self-administered.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The 2025 California assisted suicide report that was released in July 2026 indicates that there were 1235 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2025 which was up by 11% from 1113 in 2024.

The assisted suicide death reporting problems are getting worse in California.

The 2024 California assisted suicide report stated that there were 1032 reported assisted suicide deaths. 

The 2025 California assisted suicide report updated the 2024 data and stated that there were 1113 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2024. That is a increase of 81 deaths. 

 

Based on the reporting problems in the 2024 report, I predicted, last year, that there were likely 1100 assisted suicide deaths in 2024, but the real number is worse (1113) and in fact there were likely many more.

Let's look at the shoddy 2023 California assisted suicide data.

The 2023 California assisted suicide report stated that there were 884 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023. That was bad enough, but the 2024 California assisted suicide report updated the 2023 data and reported 969 assisted suicide deaths in 2023. That was a difference of 85 assisted suicide deaths representing an approxmate 9% difference.

But it doesn't stop there. The 2025 California assisted suicide report states that there were 983 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023. That means two years after publishing the 2023 report the California Department of Health found 14 more 2023 assisted suicide deaths or 99 more deaths since 2023.

Now let's look at the shoddy 2022 data.

The 2022 California assisted suicide report stated that there were 853 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2022. The 2023 report updated the 2022 report and stated that there were 890 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2022. The 2024 California assisted suicide report stated that there were 896 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2022. But even worse, the 2025 California assisted suicide report stated that there were 899 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2022.

I think there are reasons why the California assisted suicide reports are so flawed.

The data indicates that there are a huge number of people who received the lethal poison prescriptions that were unaccounted for in the previous reports.

The 2025 California assisted suicide report states that 1839 poison prescriptions written which was up from 1710 in 2024 and 1418 in 2023.

But the 2024 report indicates that there were 1591 poison prescriptions written which was up from 1409 in 2023 and 1332 in 2022.

That means that the 2024 report did not account for 119 poison prescriptions that the 2025 report uncovered from 2024, even though the assisted suicide report is published more than 6 months after the year end. 

What is even worse is that the 2025 report indicated that there were 1418 poison prescriptions in 2023 even though the 2024 report indicated that there were 1409.

How did the California Department of Health stumble on 9 more assisted suicide prescriptions and possible deaths two years after they happened?

But there is more.

 

The 2025 California assisted suicide report indicates that there were 1839 poison prescriptions written, 1159 people died from those poison prescriptions, 76 people died from poison prescriptions from previous years, 300 people died from natural causes and 380 people received the poison prescription but their ingestion status is unknown.

How many of the 380 people who received a poison prescription in 2025 and whose ingestion status is unknown actually died by assisted suicide?

The California Department of Health has no idea if these 380 people died, and if they died did they die by assisted suicide but no assisted suicide report was submitted.

This problem is not new. The 2024 California assisted suicide report stated that 388 people who received the poison prescription in 2024, their ingestion status was unknown. Many of the 388 show up as assisted suicide deaths in 2025 but the majority of them remain unknown. Did they also die by assisted suicide?

Here is what you need to know.

Based on the California Department of Health assisted suicide reporting problems, there were likely at least 1350 California assisted suicide deaths in 2025 and close to 2000 poison prescriptions written in 2025.

It is also likely that there are unreported assisted suicide deaths in California and further to that the problem with the assisted suicide reports continues.

 

Why are the reporting problems important?

 

The media will suggest that there was only an 11% increase in assisted suicide deaths in California with 1113 in 2024 and 1235 in 2025. 

 

But based on the reporting problems there were likely at least 1350 assisted suicide deaths in 2025 which is greater than a 21% increase.

 

Further to that, a large percentage of people who receive the poison prescription, the California Department of Health has no idea if they died by assisted suicide or died a natural death. There could be another large group of Californians who died by assisted suicide but no assisted suicide report was submitted.  

Further to that, there is no proof in the California assisted suicide reports that all of the assisted suicide deaths were voluntary or self-administered.

I would suggest that a doctoral student could earn a doctorate by doing a deep dive into the real assisted suicide data in California. 

 

In the next few days I will provide a deeper dive into the California 2025 report.