A deeper dive into the California assisted suicide data.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On August 18 I published the article: California 2025 assisted suicide report. More deaths, Missing data which explained the 2025 California assisted suicide report data, uncovering shoddy reporting and missing data in the California assisted suicide reports.

The article reported that the 2025 California assisted suicide report indicates that there were 1,235 reported assisted suicide deaths which is up by 11% from 1,113 in 2024 and 1839 poison prescriptions written in 2025 which was up by almost 8% from 1710 poison prescriptions in 2024.

*Based on incomplete data in previous California assisted suicide reports, I predict that the actual 2025 data is around 1975 poison prescriptions and 1330 assisted suicide deaths.

Let's examine the incomplete data in the report.

The 2024 California assisted suicide report stated that there were 1591 poison prescriptions written and 1032 reported assisted suicide deaths. 

The 2025 California assisted suicide report updated the 2024 data and states that there were 1710 poison prescriptions written and 1,113 reported assisted suicide deaths.

Therefore the 2025 report increased the number of 2024 poison prescriptions by (119) 7.5% and the number of reported assisted suicide deaths by (81) almost 8%. 

Based on the 2024 data, you can understand why I am predicting that the 2026 California assisted suicide report will indicate that in 2025 there were approximately 1975 poison prescriptions written and 1330 assisted suicide deaths in 2025. This data does not include the people who received a poison prescription and whose ingestion status is unknown.

Reasons for data inaccuracy in the report.

The 2025 report indicates that there were 380 people who received the lethal poison but whose ingestion status was unknown. When the ingestion status is unknown, they know that the person received the lethal prescription, but they do not know if the person died or how they died. The 380 people, whose ingestion status was unknown, could have died by assisted suicide with no report being filed.

The 2025 report acknowledges that the data discrepencies and states the following:

Note that cumulative counts reported above do not match prior reports. These differences arise from several factors including: 

• the timing of forms received; 

• the registration of deaths; and, 

• the inclusion of duplicate records in prior reports, which have been removed.

There are problems with the timing of forms received and with the registration of deaths, but the removal of duplicate reports, does not explain how the 2025 report increased the numbers from previous years as removing duplicate reports would decrease the numbers.

Let's examine the 2021 assisted suicide death data. The 2025 report states that 3 more 2021 poison prescriptions were uncovered in 2025 and 2 more assisted suicide deaths. These three poison prescriptions and 2 assisted suicide deaths were found 4 years late. Where were these reports?

Further to that there are intentional euthanasia deaths in California, but just not reported. A supporter of ours sent us the following private message:

California is MUCH further down the road than the public understands. In 2024 I was in a 'recovery' nursing home/hospice in Sacramento. I was in for congestive heart failure (CHF). I was personally pressured, as was my family, to be compassionate and face an objective reality: "He is incurable and about to die" My death at their hand would NOT have been reported. CHF would be listed as the cause. THAT is the law and practice in California.

Other issues from the report.

The report indicates that 94.3% of the people who are approved for assisted suicide are receiving hospice and/or palliative care. This is a bold statement considering the fact that the assisted suicide doctors are encouraged to enroll assisted suicide requesters into palliative care.

It is one thing to be enrolled in hospice and/or palliative care. It is another thing to be receiving hospice and/or palliative care. In other words, the death lobby wants it to appear that nearly everyone who died by assisted suicide was also being cared for by hospice and/or palliative care.

There needs to be an independent study conducted by a doctoral student who is honestly attempting to uncover the real data. It is very likely that there is a large number of unreported assisted suicide deaths in California.

Assisted suicide is for the privileged.

The Public Policy Institute of California reported in January 2026 that California has the most diverse population in the US. The January 2026 report stated that in July 2025:

No race or ethnic group constitutes a majority of the state population: 41% of Californians are Latino, 34% are white, 17% are Asian American or Pacific Islander, 5% are Black, 3% are multiracial, and less than 1% are Native American or Alaska Natives, according to US Census Bureau estimates.

The 2025 California asssisted suicide report indicated that those who died by assisted suicide:

• 85.5% of the people were White, 
• 6.4% of the people were Asian, 
• 5.5% of the people were Latino, 
• 1.2% of the people where Black,
• 1% were Multiracial, and
• none of the people were Native American.

White people are predominantly dying by assisted suicide even though they represent only 34% of California's population.

The Public Policy Institute of California published in February 2026 that 35 - 37% of Californians have a University degree and yet the California assisted suicide report indicates that more than 52% of the assisted suicide deaths are people with a University degree.

The California assisted suicide reports have missing data and under-reporting is very likely and yet assisted suicide is a life and death issue. 

People have the right to know the assisted suicide reality in California and everywhere. 

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition calls on the California Department of Public Health to carry out an independent, in depth research project which would:

• do a large survey of how people in California are dying,
• examine the large number of cases where the person received the assisted suicide prescription, but whose ingestion status is unknown,
• examine more closely the reality of why people are asking for death by assisted suicide.

It is likely that an independent study would uncover unreported assisted suicide deaths and similar to the Netherlands, it is likely that the report would uncover that euthanasia (homicide) deaths are also happening in California.

California 2025 assisted suicide report. More deaths, Missing data.

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. 

Fewer Animal Euthanasia Deaths — but More Human Euthanasia Deaths

This article was published by National Review online on April 21, 2026.

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith

After a bear was euthanized in California because she paw-swiped a human who owned a house under which the bruin and her cubs were living, there was a popular outcry. Now, a bill has been put in the hopper in the California State Senate promoting “coexistence” between people and wild animals. From S.B. 1135:

It is the policy of the state that the management of wildlife shall include an emphasis on the coexistence of humans and wildlife through department-led efforts to reduce, minimize, and mitigate conflicts. These efforts shall also seek to align with the state’s conservation, public safety, environmental planning, and climate adaptation goals and to be accomplished through coordination and cooperation between the department and wildlife coexistence partners.

Here are the details:

Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the department shall establish the Wildlife Coexistence Program to manage and promote wildlife coexistence by conducting all of the following activities:
(a) Managing, tracking, and responding to wildlife conflict calls, reports, and incident responses.
(b) Avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating conflicts between humans and wildlife by proactively and continuously implementing best practices that emphasize effective and ecologically appropriate nonlethal conflict resolution solutions developed using best available science and indigenous knowledge.
(c) Investigating, documenting, and analyzing reported human-wildlife incidents, including, but not limited to, depredation, perceived or actual human-wildlife conflicts, and wildlife health issues.
(d) Maintaining a statewide wildlife incident reporting tool.

Okay. That’s going to take a lot of time, effort, and resources in a state in which homelessness is rampant, children aren’t learning in school, and the public debt is increasing. Still, my main concern is public safety. Dangerous animals that have attacked humans should be euthanized, it seems to me.

There is also a major push around the country for “no kill” animal shelters. I’m fine with that, particularly for adoptable pets. But aren’t our moral sensibilities being inverted? As we see a greater push for fewer animal deaths by euthanasia, concomitantly, euthanasia activists are pressuring for policies to increase the number of ill and disabled people who are killed by assisted suicide or a lethal jab.

In 2024, I wrote about a California assisted-suicide activist who, in the California Health Report, urged the medical community to be more proactive in informing qualifying patients of their right to be killed. (This happens all the time in Canada.) The fellow groused that Canada had so many euthanasia deaths whereas California — with an equivalent population — had so comparatively few.

Meanwhile, Compassion and Choices (formerly and more honestly known as the Hemlock Society) sought to increase the number of people of color who opt for assisted suicide. Similarly, Thaddeus Mason Pope — the bioethicist leading the charge for radicalizing access to euthanasia and assisted suicide, took to the pages of the American Journal of Bioethics to advocate the “Top Ten Expansions” he wanted to see to increase access to euthanasia. He concluded:

The United States took an early worldwide lead with MAID when Oregon enacted its Death with Dignity Act in 1994. But . . . the United States has lost its lead. And it is quickly falling to the back of the pack in terms of MAID safety and access.

I would put it differently. The U.S. isn’t falling into the moral abyss as fast as some other nations, but we are falling.

I am all for reducing the number of animals that are euthanized, consistent with public safety, the protection of livestock, and the ability to care for them humanely. I just wish we were equally committed to “no kill health care” for humans.

Previous similar article:

• Animals can have no kill shelters. Why not humans? (Read).
  

California 2024 assisted suicide report. The data are not accurate.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The California assisted suicide statute assumes that assisted suicide deaths are voluntary or self-administered. The lack of oversight in the law makes it impossible to assure that every death was voluntary and self-administered.

The 2024 California assisted suicide report that was recently released states that there were 1032 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2024 which was up from 969 in 2023.

The data are not accurate. 

The 2023 California assisted suicide report indicated that there were 884 reported assisted suicide deaths. Based on reporting problems, I predicted, last year, that the actual number was likely 925, but the 2024 report indicated that there were 969 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023. The difference of (969 - 884) means that 85 assisted suicide deaths were reported late in 2023 representing an almost 9% difference.

Based on the California reporting system, I predict that the 2025 California report will indicate that there were at least 1100 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2024.

The previous data is also problematic. 

The 2024 California assisted suicide report indicated that there were 896 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2022, the 2023 report indicated that there were 890 in 2022 and the 2022 report indicated that there were 853 in 2022. Why are the medical professionals filing the assisted suicide reports so late?

Further analysis: Ingestion status is unknown.

The 2024 report indicated that of the 1591 Californians who received the poison prescription, the ingestion status was unknown for 388 of the people. The problem with the unknown ingestion status increased greatly. The 2023 report indicated that there were 276 Californians who received the lethal poison but whose ingestion status was unknown. 

When the ingestion status is unknown, they know that the person was approved and received the lethal prescription, but they do not know if they died or how they died.

Based on the data we know that some of the 388 people, whose ingestion status is unknown, died a natural death and some of them died by assisted suicide but it is also likely that some of the 388 people died by assisted suicide but the assisted suicide death was unreported.

California uses a self-reporting system, meaning the medical professional who prescribed the poison prescription same person who is obligated to submit the assisted suicide death report. It is impossible to know that a person died by assisted suicide when the medical professional fails to submit the assisted suicide report and there is no oversight that uncovers unreported assisted suicide deaths.

More inaccurate data: Increase in lethal poison prescriptions.

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

But the data is problematic. The 2023 report indicated that there were 1281 lethal poison prescriptions written in 2023 and 1328 in 2022. Why is there a discrepancy of (1409 - 1281) 128 poison prescriptions for 2023 within the 2024 report?

Based on the data from previous years, it is likely that at least 1700 poison prescriptions were written in 2024. 

I can understand the problem with late reporting of assisted suicide deaths. I can understand the problem of under-reporting of assisted suicide deaths. I can't understand the discrepancy concerning the poison prescription data. Prescriptions can also be tracked through through the pharmacy system, therefore the discrepancy should not exist.

The Times of San Diego reported that the California legislature passed Bill SB 403, a bill that expands the California assisted suicide law by removing the requirement that law be reviewed in 2031 and by removing certain reporting requirements.

Based on the lack of accurate data in the 2024 California assisted suicide report, I can understand why the California legislature would want to hide the date in future reports.

More articles on this topic:

• California 2023 assisted suicide report (Link). 
• It's time to audit the death bureaucracy (Link). 
• How America Abandoned its assisted suicide safeguards (Link).
• Assisted suicide laws, once legal, inevitably expand (Link).
• California doctor faces up to 10 years in prison for fraudulently diagnosing his patients as terminal (Link).
  

California hospice operater sentenced to 12 years in prison for medicare fraud

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The US Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs reported on May 6, 2025 that Petros Fichidzhyan, 44, of Granada Hills, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in a hospice 17 million dollar medicare fraud.

The Department of Justice Press Release stated:

According to court documents, Petros Fichidzhyan, 44, of Granada Hills, schemed with others to bill Medicare for hospice services that were not medically necessary and never provided. Fichidzhyan and his co-schemers controlled hospice entities and used foreign nationals’ personal identifying information (PII) to conceal the scheme, using the PII to, among other things, open bank accounts, submit information to Medicare, and sign property leases. The defendant and his co-schemers also misappropriated the names and PII of several doctors, two of whom were deceased, to fraudulently bill Medicare for purported hospice services. Medicare paid the sham hospices nearly $16 million, of which Fichidzhyan received nearly $7 million, with more than $5.3 million laundered through a dozen shell and third-party bank accounts. Fichidzhyan also obtained more than $1 million in false claims paid to his home health care agency, which fraudulently used a doctor’s name and identifying information as having certified Medicare beneficiaries for home health care. When the doctor confronted Fichidzhyan about the fraud, Fichidzhyan attempted to cover up the scheme by paying the doctor $11,000.

This article is not to attack genuine hospice care, but rather to emphasize that California legalized assisted suicide in 2016 and people are dying by assisted suicide, sometimes based on a lack of available hospice services. Medicare fraud not only steals from the government healthcare system but rather it also effects the funding and trust of genuine hospice care services.

The Department of Justice Press Release further stated that:

“For years, the defendant, working with others, ran multiple sham hospice and home health care schemes, fraudulently billing Medicare over $17 million,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant’s egregious scheme relied on layers of deception and sophisticated money laundering, and wasted millions in taxpayer money. With the help of our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice is fully committed to stopping these criminal networks and protecting the public fisc.”

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition supports genuine hospice care that enables people to live with true caring and compassion until their natural death.

California bill may extend assisted suicide to euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

There are currently three states, in 2025, that have bills to expand their assisted suicide laws (Vermont, Oregon and Washington State).

Senator Blakespear, who last year sponsored Senate Bill 1196, a bill that would have expanded the California assisted suicide law to include euthanasia and removed the terminal illness requirement from the law, indicated that she will be sponsoring Bill SB 403, a bill to expand California's assisted suicide law.

Thaddeus Pope

The text of SB 403 has not been released but on February 18, euthanasia and assisted suicide activist and academic, Thaddeus Pope, published on his Medical Futility Blog that:

California is again looking to amend its 2015 End of Life Option Act. S.B. 403 will likely call for a study committee to examine several amendments:

1. Permitting IV self-administration of medications - because it is significantly safer and more effective than ingestion of medications,
2. Permitting APRNs to prescribe - because this has improved access with no risk to safety in other states (NM HI WA CO),
3. Eliminating the 6-month terminal illness requirement - because it is arbitrary and excludes patients with serious irreversible illnesses who want to avoid intolerable suffering,
4. Eliminating the sunset clause - because the EOLOA expires in 2031,
5. Eliminating the residency requirement - because it is unconstitutional and patients are coming to California for MAID anyway,
6. Other amendments.

SB 403 is very similar to last year's SB 1196. Since the language of the bill is not released I can only comment on the concepts related to the changes.

 

1. Permitting IV self-administration will allow for euthanasia, which is homicide. Euthanasia is done in Canada by IV administration. Since there is no oversight in California's assisted suicide law, meaning, the doctor who assists the death is also the person who reports the death (no third party involvement) therefore allowing IV self-administration cannot be distinguished from IV administration. Therefore permitting IV self-administration in fact will also allow euthanasia (homicide).

2. Permitting non-doctors to assist suicide by prescribing lethal poison is based on the lack of doctors who are willing to assist the suicides of their patients. More people who are permitted to kill leads to more killing.

3. Replacing the 6 month terminal illness requirement with a definition of serious irreversible illnesses who want to avoid intolerable suffering eliminates the terminal illness requirement. 

 

Eliminating the terminal illness requirement leads to people with disabilities "qualifying" for death by lethal poison for reasons of poverty, homelessness, an inability to obtain necessary services or medical treatment as has happened in Canada. The Ontario Coroner's MAiD death review committee report indicated that some euthanasia deaths are driven by homelessness, fear and isolation (Article Link).

4. Eliminating the residency requirement allows for suicide tourism. Pope states that the residency requirement is unconstitutional. In September 2024 a New Jersey court disagreed with Pope. Further to that, Pope admits that non-residents are already dying by assisted suicide in California. Breaking the law is not a reason to change the law.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will expose SB 403 and this article will be updated when the language of the bill is officially released.

California doctor faces up to 10 years in prison for fraudulently diagnosing his patients as terminal

Did any of Dr Victor Contreras's patients fraudulently die by assisted suicide? 

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Holly Vossel reported for The Hospice News on July 26 that a hospice physician in California faces up to 10 years in prison for defrauding the Medicare system by falsely claiming that his patients were terminal and thus qualifying them under Medicare for hospice. Vossel reported:

Two years following his arrest, Dr. Victor Contreras, 68, recently pled guilty to one count of health care fraud. Contreras served as a physician for two Pasadena-based providers, Saint Mariam Hospice Inc. and Arcadia Hospice Provider Inc.

Contreras defrauded Medicare of nearly $4 million in false and fraudulent hospice claims from July 2016 to February 2019, according to the plea agreement. U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr. has scheduled a sentencing hearing for October 25, with Contreras facing a maximum of 10 years in federal prison.

“Contreras falsely stated on claims forms that patients had terminal illnesses to make them eligible for hospice services covered by Medicare, typically adopting diagnoses provided to him by hospice employees whether or not they were true,” the U.S. Department of Justice Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California indicated in a statement. “Contreras did so even though he was not the patients’ primary care physician and had not spoken to those primary care physicians about the patients’ conditions.”

This issue is significant for several reasons. 

The authorities are concerned with approximately $30 million in Medicare fraud. 

We are concerned with the ease of falsely declaring patients terminal considering that the same criteria for qualifying for hospice care also qualifies a patient for assisted suicide in California. Did any of Contreras's patients fraudulently die by assisted suicide?

Vossel reported for The Hospice News that:

Arcadia Hospice Provider submitted false Medicare claims to the tune of $23 million. Meanwhile, St. Mariam Hospice submitted nearly $13.5 million in false claims. Contreras was allegedly involved in roughly $5.1 million of these, according to the Justice Department.

Additional charges were issued to medical industry marketer Callie Jean Black, 65, who allegedly recruited patients for the hospice companies in exchange for illegal kickbacks, the Justice Department reported. Black was also arrested in 2022 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A sentencing trial is scheduled for October 15.

The charges also included the owner of the two hospice companies, Juanita Antenor, 61, who remains at large. Authorities have not been able to locate Antenor throughout the two-year investigation. The Justice Department believed Antenor could have relocated to the Philippines as of 2022, though nothing has been publicly confirmed.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition demands an audit of the medical records for people who have been approved for assisted suicide in California.

Further to that, we recognize that if such levels of Medicare fraud and falsely diagnosing people as terminal is possible in California, then it must also be possible in all American jurisdictions and even Canada.

Laws that permit the killing of people by assisted suicide can be abused. 

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.

Does California Senate Bill 1196 legalize euthanasia/homicide?

SB 1196 is a "Trojan horse" euthanasia bill.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In 2016 California legalized assisted suicide and expanded the law in 2021.

California is now debating further expansions and a change in the law to specifically "utilize" the lethal poison by IV (intravenous).

On March 8, 2024 I published an article based on the summary of the bill from Senator Blakespear, the sponsor of the bill, concerning California Senate Bill 1196. 

Based on the summary of SB 1196 by Senator Blakespear I stated that the bill would:

1. Allow euthanasia by IV (intravenous), as in Canada. Currently, California permits assisted suicide (lethal poison that a person takes orally at the time and place of their own choosing, with or without witnesses). This bill allows for death by IV. This constitutes euthanasia/homicide.
2. Change the criteria from terminally ill (6 month prognosis) to the Canadian model: “a grievous and irremediable medical condition.” Thus, there would be no time limit  and no terminal illness requirement.
3. Allow people with early to mid-stage dementia to consent to assisted suicide or euthanasia, even though they have a condition that impairs their capacity to consent.
4. Remove the California residency requirement. California would join Oregon and Vermont, dropping their residency requirements and allowing for suicide tourism.
5. Remove the 48 hour waiting period between first and second request by the patient - same day death. 
6. Remove the 2031 sunset clause in the California assisted suicide law.

I published an article on March 18, 2024, stating that the California bill would legalize medical killing. Now that the language of SB 1196 has been released I will further explain how the Bill expands medical killing in California.

The first issue is that SB 1196 would change the law from requiring ingesting of the lethal poison to utilizing the lethal poison. Utilize is not defined in the bill but it can be defined as: "to make practical and effective use of."

The second issue is that SB 1196 would change the law from requiring a terminal disease to a grievous and irremediable medical condition.

Terminal disease was based on a 6 month prognosis whereas grievous and irremediable medical condition has a long definition that essentially means that the person has a serious chronic condition that will continue to decline.

The bill states:  

For purposes of this part, a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” includes a diagnosis of early to mid-stage dementia while the individual still has the capacity to make medical decisions. 

How would early to mid-state dementia be defined in practise?

The next issue is that SB 1196 permits non-doctors to participate in the law. SB 1196 adds the following: nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and registered nurses.

The next issue is that SB 1196 removes the residency requirement in the California law by striking out the words - is a resident of California.

The most important issue is the use of an IV (intravenous) catheter to "utilize" the poison. SB 1196 states:  

death through ingestion, or through an intravenous pathway after a health care provider places an intravenous catheter if one was not already placed, to bring about the qualified individual’s own death. 

This statement does not limit the use of the IV catheter to assisted suicide and could allow for euthanasia/homicide.

Later SB 1196, states:  

For purposes of this section, “assisting the qualified individual by preparing the aid-in-dying drug” includes a health care provider placing an intravenous catheter, so long as the health care provider does not assist the qualified individual in introducing the aid-in-dying drug into the qualified individual’s vein.

This statement infers that the person must somehow utilize the IV catheter. The IV can be placed but the health care provider cannot "assist". This is intentionally confusing. There may also be circumstances, such as ALS, where the person has difficulty "utilizing" the IV catheter without assistance.

Justice Chhabria's decision can help us clarify this situation.

On June 22, 2022, a California federal judge rejected a case designed to permit euthanasia within California's assisted suicide act. Lonny Shavelson, a doctor that solely focuses on assisting suicide and Sandra Morris, who had ALS, argued that the state's assisted suicide law discriminated against people who had difficulty self-ingesting the lethal drugs and to remedy the situation the state needed to permit euthanasia in those cases.

In that case, Shavelson argued that allowing the administration of lethal drugs by IV catheter when a person has difficulty self-administering the lethal drugs was necessary. Justice Chhabria rejected the argument:

Chhabria ruled the case could not proceed on the theory that it violates the ADA because the accommodation they seek would cross the boundary created by the End of Life Option Act, “from the ability to end your own life to the ability to have someone else end it for you.”

Chhabria further ruled:

“Such an accommodation would ‘compromise' the essential nature of the act, and would therefore fundamentally alter the program.’”

The judge said the law’s self-administration requirement is the “final safeguard” to ensure the act remains voluntary.

“A person seeking to end their life pursuant to the act can opt out at any point — after requesting or receiving the prescription, after the drugs are in their hand, after the feeding tube has been installed, after saying goodbye,” he wrote. “The accommodation that the plaintiffs seek would significantly undermine these protections by opening a window during which there would be no way of knowing whether the patient had changed their mind.”

If SB 1196 is passed it would change the California law by removing self-administer, removing the terminal illness requirement and allowing the utilization of an IV catheter, these changes would make it impossible to distinguish between an act of assisted suicide and an act of euthanasia/homicide. 

Assisted suicide is to receive lethal poison and self-administer it for the purpose of causing death.

Euthanasia is when another person, usually a medical professional, administers the lethal poison for the purpose of causing death. Euthanasia is a form of homicide/murder.

Since SB 1196 does not require a "third/independent party" to witness the act, therefore SB 1196 would enable active euthanasia under the guise of assisted suicide and achieve for the euthanasia lobby what was denied to them by Justice Chhabria in 2022.

SB 1196 is a "Trojan horse" euthanasia bill.

California Bill will expand law from assisted suicide to euthanasia and more.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

California Senator Catherine Blakespear (D) has sponsored the most extreme assisted suicide expansion bill in America by introducing Senate Bill 1196. 

SB 1196 will expand the California assisted suicide law by:

1. Changing the criteria from terminally ill (6 month prognosis) to the Canadian model: “a grievous and irremediable medical condition.” meaning No time limit.

2. Allow people with early to mid-stage dementia to consent to assisted suicide/euthanasia; even though they have a condition that impairs their capacity to consent. 

3. Allow euthanasia—by IV, as in Canada. Currently, California permits assisted suicide (lethal poison that a person takes orally at the time and place of their own choosing, with or without witnesses)

4. Remove the California residency requirement. This would allow California to join Oregon and Vermont, which dropped their residency requirements and now allow suicide tourism.

5. Remove the 48 hour waiting period between first and second request by the patient. Same day death. 

6. The California assisted suicide law is scheduled to sunset in 2031. This bill proposes to remove the sunset date.

Changing the California assisted suicide law to euthanasia, is not simply changing how the act is done it is legalizing a new act by amending California Homicide Laws. Assisted suicide requires medical practitioners to be directly involved in an act of killing someone. Euthanasia requires the medical practitioner to actively carry out the act. Canada legalized euthanasia by creating an exception to homicide, California will need to do the same.

Changing the criteria from a terminal illness (6 months prognosis) to having a 'grievous and irremediable medical condition' will lead to people with disabilities "qualifying" for death by lethal poison for reasons of poverty, homelessness, an inability to obtain necessary services or difficulty with obtaining medical treatment as has happened in Canada. (Article Link).

Euthanasia is sold to the public as allowing competent adults who are capable of consenting to die by lethal poison. Allowing euthanasia for people with dementia permits medical practitioners to kill someone who is not competent and unable to consent.

Removing the 48-hour waiting period will enable a same day death by euthanasia.

Homicide tourism would be permitted if Bill SB 1196 is passed since the bill permits death by euthanasia/homicide and it removes the California residency requirement.

Thank you to Dr Mark Komrad for alerting me to the purpose of Bill SB 1196.

California needs to reject Bill SB 1196.

Don't follow Canada's lead.