Maine and New Jersey are debating assisted suicide expansion bills.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I have written several articles explaining that the assisted suicide lobby in the US employ a "bait and switch" tactic. The assisted suicide lobby designs legislation that is designed to pass, with the intention of expanding the law later. The assisted suicide lobby knows that it is harder to legalize assisted suicide than to expand the bill once assisted suicide is legal.

I have already written about the Vermont, Oregon, Washington State and California bills to expand assisted suicide laws in 2025. Maine and New Jersey also have bills to expand their assisted suicide laws.

Maine Bill LD613 permits the attending physician to waive the waiting period. The bill states:

The attending physician may waive any portion or all of the waiting periods if, in the attending physician's medical opinion, it is in the best interests of the qualified patient, given the qualified patient's condition.

New Jersey S3588 also permits the 15 day waiting period to be waived. The bill states:

This bill waives the 15-day waiting periods in the case of a patient who, based on reasonable medical certainty, is not expected to survive for 15 days. The attending physician will be required to document the medical basis for the determination that the patient is not expected to survive for 15 days. The bill retains the 48-hour waiting period between submission of a written request and the issuance of a prescription for medical aid in dying medication.

Therefore there are six states in 2025 that have bills to expand their assisted suicide law.

The good news is that Montana Bill SB 136 passed in the Montana Senate by a vote of 29 to 20 and will soon be debated in the Montana House. This is a potential massive victory.

Assisted suicide laws, once passed will inevitably expand (Article Link).

The assisted suicide lobby emply a "bait and switch" tactic where the bill is designed for legalization and once legal it is later expanded. (Article Link).

Maine assisted suicide report - the law lacks effective oversight.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article by Jon Chrisos that was published on March 19, 2024 by WTMW News states that there were 117 assisted suicide deaths in the first four years of the Maine assisted suicide law. While the article by Chrisos promotes assisted suicide, it encouraged me to take a deeper look into the Maine assisted suicide data.

Since the issue of assisted suicide concerns life and death decisions one would think that the law would have a high degree of oversight. The 2022 Maine assisted suicide report states:

There were 61 patients who started the process to self-direct end of life care; however, two patients died before making their written request and another did not complete the process after making the first oral request. The remaining 58 patients met all the requirements of the Act. At the time of this report, four death certificates could not be found on record and there was no record of any person rescinding the request. It was confirmed with the attending physician that these patients are still alive.

Of the 58 people who received the lethal poison, there were 4 people with no death certificate.

A little further down on the page the report states that of the 54 people who died (58 - 4) 40 died by assisted suicide, 13 died a natural death and the cause of death was unknown in 1 death.

There is 1 case where a person was prescribed the lethal poison and died but the cause of death was unknown. When the cause of death is unknown the person may have died by assisted suicide or a natural death.

The same reporting problem exists in every state that has legalized assisted suicide. My recent article on the Oregon 2023 assisted suicide report indicates that 367 people reportedly died by assisted suicide in Oregon and the ingestion status was unknown in 141 cases. Therefore the Oregon data indicates that 141 people received the lethal poison and their ingestion status was unknown. The report then states that of the 141 people, who's ingestion status is unknown, 41 were known to have died but their ingestion status was still unknown.

Did these people die by assisted suicide or by a natural death?

One would think that a high degree of oversight is necessary when lethal poison is prescribed to a person with the intention of causing their death. 

Whether it be one person or 41 people who died, when the ingestion status is unknown, it is a serious concern and it indicates that the law lacks effective oversight.

Maine inmate requests assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Larry Smith

Even though Maine abolished capital punishment in 1887, Larry Smith (52) an inmate in Maine, is being treated for throat cancer and has requested and will likely die by a lethal assisted suicide drug cocktail.

Smith is housed at the Hancock County Jail on charges of attempted murder and robbery. Smith allegedly shot two men at a Trenton residence on Dec. 20, 2020, according to Hancock County Sheriff’s Office investigators.

Jennifer Osborn reported for the Ellsworth American that Steven Juskewitch, the attorney representing Smith stated:

“Larry will be entering a plea later this week and will be sentenced,”

“I guess we’re going to test the Death with Dignity Act and the Department of Corrections’ policy with it.”

Osborn reported that Val Lovelace, the executive director of the assisted suicide lobby group, Death with Dignity, said that the law requires patients to be terminally ill with a six-month prognosis. Lovelace stated:

“There’s no reason he should not have access to this law, if and when that time comes for him,” ... “He can have this conversation with a physician at any time. In order to start it, he would need a six-month prognosis.”

Osborn reported that there may be an issue with funding the assisted suicide death. According to Lisa Haberzetti, deputy communications director for the Maine Senate Democratic Office:

The federal Social Security Act prohibits Medicaid coverage for inmates, so medical costs are the responsibility of the jails and prisons.

Prescribing a lethal assisted suicide drug cocktail to an inmate is counter to the prohibition of capital punishment and it is counter to the goal of preventing suicide deaths of inmates. Nonetheless, this is one of the many inconsistencies that occur when assisted suicide is legalized.

Maine report: 30 people died by assisted suicide in 2020.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Maine assisted suicide law came into effect in September 2019. 

According to the 2020 Maine assisted suicide report, the first full year of the Maine regime there were: 

• 50 people were approved for death by lethal drugs, 
• 30 people died by assisted suicide, 
• 15 of the 50 people died a natural death and 
• one death, it was unknown whether the person died by assisted suicide or not.

When the death is unknown it may be an unreported assisted suicide death.

The data from the Maine assisted suicide report is sparse, at best.

The report does not indicate if anyone was sent for mental health or capacity assessment, or how often the doctor was present at the death, or even time-frame from ingestion to death.

In 2019, in Oregon, the time of death ranged from 1 minute to 47 hours, while in 2020 the time of death ranged from 6 minutes to 8 hours.

The report does indicate that 49 of the 50 people who were approved for assisted suicide were white, which is similar to other jurisdictions.

The majority of those approved for assisted suicide had cancer, but 6 people had "other illnesses." There is no indication what the other illnesses were. In Oregon people with diabetes have died by assisted suicide.

The language of the report.

It is insidious that the Maine report refers to assisted suicide deaths as dying by patient choice. Nothing in the report assures us that these deaths were by patient choice. The self-reporting system is designed to protect the doctor who participate in assisted suicide, it does not assure us that the law has been followed (a doctor that approves the death, is the same doctor who writes the lethal prescription, is the same doctor who sends the assisted suicide report to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, and does not provide a third-party independent system that assures us that the law has been followed). The doctor that is required to send in the report is not required to be present at the death.

Further to that referring to assisted suicide as death by patient choice suggests that natural deaths are not deaths by patient choice. The language in the assisted suicide debate is becoming ridiculous.

It is important to re-iterate what assisted suicide is. Assisted suicide is an act whereby a one person (usually a doctor) agrees that a person's qualifies to die by suicide and prescribes the lethal drugs for the act. The death ensues by lethal drugs.

We oppose assisted suicide because the law gives the power to a person (usually a doctor) to be involved with causing the death of another person.

It is not safe for the law to give anyone the right to be involved with causing the death of another person.