Assisted suicide was legalized in three US states in 2025. Are you concerned?

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In 2025, assisted suicide was legalized in Delaware, Illinois and New York. This means that there are now 13 US states plus Washington DC that permit assisted suicide. The 13 states include California, Illinois and New York, three of the six most populated states in America.

This is tragic and will result in many early deaths and will lead to the further medical abandonment of people in need.

Previous to this year, the last state that legalized assisted suicide was New Mexico in 2021.

Are you concerned? I am concerned.

I watched the recent online US assisted suicide lobby political meeting. During the meeting the assisted suicide lobby outlined that, in 2026, there will be at least 18 states with bills to legalize assisted suicide. 

We are very concerning with some of the listed states which included: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada and Virginia. There are other states that the assisted suicide lobby are focusing on that are less likely to legalize assisted suicide in 2026 including (but not limited to) Arizona and Florida.

Our allies have been very successful in the past few years but the issue seems to be changing How are we to respond?

Let's look at the most recent successful campaign. 

The Slovenian people voted on an assisted suicide referendum on Sunday, November 23, 2025 and voted to overturn the assisted suicide bill that was passed in the Slovenian legislature in July 2025. More than 53.5% of the voters rejected the assisted suicide law.

This was a great victory, that was accomplished by a small group of committed citizens who stuck to their talking points. They achieved the victory for people who are sick, people with disabilities and pensioners against all odds, as they were up against the government and a well funded death lobby.

Slovenia is not the United States, but the principles in the successful campaign will transport to North America.

They weren't afraid to call it what it is. They used the term poisoning. Assisted suicide is to provide a lethal concoction to poison a person to death. 

The never used the language of the other side. The other side continuously lied about what the assisted suicide law said or what assisted suicide is. The campaign focused on telling the truth and challenging the lies.

They called assisted suicide, health care reform. Most jurisdictions require health care reform to enable a more equitable provision of care. Assisted suicide poisons a person to death. Dead people don't need health care.

The called assisted suicide pension reform. Slovenia, like most jurisdictions, invest a significant portion of their budget into the pension system. Assisted suicide poisons a person to death. Dead people don't collect pensions.

Proper medical care. The other side focused on suffering. The campaign opposing assisted suicide talked about proper care, and explained that assisted suicide forces people, who cannot attain proper medical care, to be poisoned to death.

The Slovenian campaign was more aggressive than most campaigns, but they won even though they were massively out-spent.

The take-away from the Slovenian referendum is that people innately oppose killing people, but you must be willing to state what assisted suicide is. The Slovenians built their campaign on a few key talking points and stuck to them. Hiding behind nice language or presenting the issue in a way that seems more socially acceptable avoids the reality that assisted suicide is about killing people by poison.

I am not afraid to say that I oppose killing people.

Three states, three challenges. Delaware, Illinois, Nevada

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The states of Delaware, Illinois and Nevada require your immediate attention.

Delaware passed assisted suicide bill HB 140 in the House and the Senate.

Governor Matt Meyer

Delaware Governor Matt Meyer must veto assisted suicide bill HB 140. Last year Delaware Governor John Carney vetoed the assisted suicide bill after it passed. 

Contact Governor Meyer and urge him to prevent killing with a veto of assisted suicide Bill HB 140. Contact Delaware Governor Matt Meyer (Contact Link).

llinois assisted suicide bill SB9 passed in the Senate Executive Committee and will soon be debated in the full Senate. We need everyone to contact Illinois Senators and urge them to prevent the killing of Illinois citizens by defeating Bill SB9. Some talking points are below.

Contact the members of the Illinois Senate (Senate Contact List)

Governor Lombardo

In 2023, the Nevada House and Senate passed an assisted suicide bill. Thankfully Governor Joe Lombardo vetoed the bill.

In 2025, the Nevada House and Senate passed assisted suicide Bill AB 246. Recently Governor Lombardo stated that he would veto the bill (Link).

Send a message to Governor Lombardo reminding him to veto assisted suicide bill AB 246 at (this link) or send your message by Twitter at: @JosephMLombardo or call him at: (775) 684-5670.

When contacting Delaware Governor Matt Meyer or the Illinois State Senators use some of these talking points:

• Legalizing assisted suicide gives doctors the right in law to be involved with causing the death of their patients at the most vulnerable time of their lives.
• Assisted suicide is not about freedom or choice but it is a form of cultural and medical abandonment.
• A caring culture supports good end of life care and opposes assisting suicides. 

If you have a personal story, please share it. It is important to remind elected representatives that the disability community opposes assisted suicide because legalizing assisted suicide devalues their lives.

The assisted suicide lobby has expanded existing assisted suicide legislation in nearly every state, once legal. Oregon eliminated their reflection period and has eliminated their residency requirement. Vermont is permitting assisted suicide by telehealth, they are forcing medical practitioners who oppose assisted suicide to refer patients to death and they have eliminated their residency requirement. Washington state, California, Colorado and Hawaii have also expanded their assisted suicide laws.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will lobby or launch court cases to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill is designed to pass in the legislature, once passed incremental extentions will follow.

Nevada Governor says he will veto assisted suicide bill.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Governor Joe Lombardo

I have great news.

Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo said that he will veto assisted suicide Bill AB346 and he told the legislature to disregard the assisted suicide bill. Lombardo stated on April 4, 2025 that:

Expansions in palliative care services and continued improvements in advanced pain management make the end-of-life provisions in AB346 unnecessary, and I would encourage you the 2025 Legislature to disregard AB346 because I will not sign it.

Based on Lombardo's comment, The Nevada Globe wrote on April 4 that:

However, the ethical and practical ramifications of legalizing physician-assisted suicide cannot be overlooked. Critics contend that such legislation may lead to hasty decisions, undermine the sanctity of life, and pose risks to vulnerable populations, including the elderly and disabled. Furthermore, there is apprehension about the potential erosion of trust in the medical profession, whose primary mandate is to heal and preserve life.

As this debate unfolds, Nevadans are encouraged to reflect on the profound moral, ethical, and societal implications of AB 346. Should the state endorse a practice that fundamentally alters the physician’s role and the value placed on human life? Or should the focus remain on enhancing palliative care and supporting patients through their natural end-of-life journey? The answers to these questions will shape the future of healthcare and the ethical landscape of Nevada.

In June 2023, Governor Lomardo also vetoed assisted suicide Bill SB 239 that had passed in the Nevada Senate by a vote of 11 - 10 and in the Nevada House by a vote of 23 - 19. 

On June 5, 2023; Jessica Hill and Taylor R. Avery reported for the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Governor Lombardo stated, when he vetoed assisted suicide bill SB 239 that:

“End of life decisions are never easy,” Lombardo wrote in his veto message. “Individuals and family members must often come together to face many challenges — including deciding what is the best course of treatment for a loved one.”

Lombardo said the provisions in the bill “unnecessary” due to expansions and improvements in palliative care services, or care for people living with serious illnesses, and pain management.

*Please thank Governor Lombardo for rejecting assisted suicide Bill AB346 through (this link) or call him at: (775) 684-5670 or post a message through X (Twitter) at: @JosephMLombardo

Nevada's dangerous assisted suicide bill.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Nevada state legislature.

In May 2023, EPC sent out an alert urging Americans to contact Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo to veto assisted suicide Bill SB 239 after it passed in the Nevada Senate by a vote of 11 to 10 and in the Nevada House by a vote of 23 to 19. 

In June 2023, EPC sent out a Thank You email after Governor Lombardo vetoed assisted suicide Bill SB 239. Lombardo stated in his veto that legalizing assisted suicide was not necessary based on modern improvements in pain management.

Recently three Nevada legislators introduced assisted suicide Bill AB 346. Most assisted suicide legalization bills are more moderate. The goal of the assisted suicide lobby is to get the bill passed and then expand it later. But AB 346 has several dangerous elements to it. For instance AB 346:

• Allows the "practitioner" to be either a physician or an advanced practise registered nurse to approve and prescribe the lethal poison drug cocktail.
• Requires a 15-day reflection period, but it allows the practitioner to waive the 15 day reflection period.
  
• Defines assisted suicide as a form of palliative care. The assisted suicide lobby is trying to change the definition of palliative care to include killing people. If assisted suicide is a form of palliative care, then assisted suicide is also a form of medical treatment.
• Requires the death certificate to name the cause of death as the disease or the sequence of causes resulting in death, but must not list lethal poison drug cocktail (assisted suicide) as the cause of death.
• Requires the "practitioner" to self-report the assisted suicide death but only requires the report to include the name and date of birth of the patient (person who died), the date on which the patient died and a statement of whether the patient was receiving hospice care at the time of death. This level of reporting is incredibly minimal.
• States that deaths by assisted suicide do not constitute mercy killing, euthanasia, assisted suicide, suicide or homicide. Therefore, if the person who died but did not self-administer (it was done to them, as in euthanasia) it would not be considered a euthanasia or a homicide. In other words, this bill allows for euthanasia/homicide through the back door.
• The bill defines assisted suicide as medical treatment by including in the definition of medical treatment: Dispensing a medication that is designed to end the life of a patient pursuant to the provisions of sections 5 to 33, inclusive, of this act. Once assisted suicide is defined as a medical treatment then it becomes the right of a person to be informed of the "option".
  
• The bill not only deems advance requests for assisted suicide as unenforceable and void, but it also deems advance requests prohibiting assisted suicide to be unenforceable and void.

So why are these concerns important? Nevada assisted suicide proponents claim that Bill AB 346 has effective safeguards. But when one reads the language of the bill you notice that AB 346 is a dangerous assisted suicide bill.

In fact, AB 346 is the perfect cover for homicide.

Nevada Governor Lombardo protects citizens by vetoing assisted suicide bill

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Thank you to the many people who contacted Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo and asked him to veto assisted suicide bill SB 239.

On May 25, EPC asked our supporters to contact Governor Lombardo urging him to veto SB 239 with (this link) or to call him at: (775) 684-5670 or post a message by Twitter at: @JosephMLombardo

The death lobby was also lobbying Governor Lombardo to sign the bill.

Greg Haas from 8newsnow.com reported that Governor Lomardo received 262 comments supporting Bill SB 239 and 632 comments against the assisted suicide bill.

On June 5, Jessica Hill and Taylor R. Avery reporting for the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote that Governor Lombardo vetoed assisted suicide bill SB 239. They reported:

Lombardo also vetoed the controversial assisted suicide bill Monday evening, arguing that it was “unnecessary” due to improvements in pain management.

“End of life decisions are never easy,” Lombardo wrote in his veto message. “Individuals and family members must often come together to face many challenges — including deciding what is the best course of treatment for a loved one.”

Lombardo said the provisions in the bill “unnecessary” due to expansions and improvements in palliative care services, or care for people living with serious illnesses, and pain management.

*Please thank Governor Lombardo for vetoing SB 239 through (this link) or call him at: (775) 684-5670 or post a message by Twitter at: @JosephMLombardo

Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo must veto assisted suicide bill SB 239

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Governor Joe Lombardo

Please help us send the message to Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo to veto assisted suicide Bill SB 239 that passed yesterday. Governor Lombardo only has five days to veto the bill.

Send a message to Governor Lombardo urging him to veto SB 239 through (this link) or call hin at: (775) 684-5670 and ask him to veto SB 239 or send your message by Twitter at: @JosephMLombardo

Remember when you are filling out the form to refer to Bill SB 239.

Bill SB 239 passed in the Nevada Senate by a vote of 11 to 10. Yesterday it passed in the House by a vote of 23 to 19.

Tell Governor Lombardo that legalizing assisted suicide gives doctors the right in law to be involved with causing the death of their patients at the most vulnerable time of their lives. Assisted suicide is not about freedom or choice but it is actually a form of cultural and medical abandonment. A caring culture supports good end of life care and it opposes assisting suicides. 

If you have a personal story, share it with Governor Lombardo. It is important to remind the Governor that the disability community opposes assisted suicide because it leads to a further devaluation of their lives.

The assisted suicide lobby, over the past few years, has expanded existing assisted suicide legislation. Oregon eliminated their reflection period and has eliminated their residency requirement. Vermont is permitting assisted suicide by telehealth, they are forcing medical practitioners who oppose assisted suicide to refer patients to death and they have eliminated their residency requirement. Washington state and Hawaii have also expanded their assisted suicide laws.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will lobby or launch court cases to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill is designed to pass in the legislature, once passed incremental extentions will follow.

Send your message to Governor Joe Lombardo urging him to veto SB 239 through (this link) or you can send your message by Twitter at: @JosephMLombardo