First, there is no magic pill for a gentle death. No assisted suicide law gives doctor guidance on what a drug prescription to end life should contain. In Oregon, it has sometimes taken people up to 72 hours to die. With doctors free to devise a cocktail involving multiple drugs and desiring to keep cost down, side effects like burned mouths or seizures can occur.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

One of my predictions that I published on January 5 was that most of the new assisted suicide bills would use the expansive definitions found in the New Mexico assisted suicide law. The New Mexico assisted suicide law is the most extreme in America.

Kentucky assisted suicide bill (HB 149) is clearly based on the New Mexico law. Even though Kentuck is unlikely to legalize assisted suicide, the assisted suicide lobby have introduced a more expansive bill than the Oregon law.

Even though we are talking about giving someone a lethal assisted suicide drug cocktail and death is irrevocable:

1. HB 149 uses the term “Health care provider” rather than the term physician.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The assisted suicide lobby have focused on increasing assisted suicide in America by expanding the current assisted suicide laws and by legalizing assisted suicide in more states. In my 2022 predictions I stated that assisted suicide expansion bills in Hawaii, Vermont, Oregon and Washington state will be strongly pushed in 2022.

The assisted suicide lobby always claimed that there is no “slippery slope” but, in reality, after legalizing assisted suicide they simply waited for the “right time” to expand the law.

Washington State legalized assisted suicide in 2009. Last year assisted suicide expansion Bill HB 1141 was introduced but the bill ran out of time in committee.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In October 2021 I published the article – Assisted Suicide deaths are not what you think they are where I explained the recent research by Dr Joel Zivot proving that assisted suicide is neither painless nor dignified and I outlined the research that is being done by the assisted suicide lobby to find a cheap effective way to kill.

Assisted suicide activists have been experimenting with lethal assisted suicide drug cocktails, for years, to find a cheaper way to cause death.

An article published in USA Today in February 2017 reported on the experiments that were done on people to find a cheaper lethal drug cocktail for assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An Irish longitudinal study examined the wish to die (WTD) among 8174 patients who were over the age of 50. The study that was published in February 2021 followed the participants for 6 years and it determined that people who had a (WTD), almost three-quarters reported being lonely and 60% had clinically significant depressive symptoms. Other factors that led to a WTD was functional disability and chronic pain.

When the WTD was reassesed two year later, 72% of the people indicated that loneliness and depression had receeded, which re-affirmed previous studies that prove that a WTD fluctuates.

This article was written by Terri Hancharick as a Special to the USA TODAY Network and published on January 28, 2022.

By Terri Hancharick, the chairperson for the Delaware State Council for Persons with Disabilities

The disability community has thoroughly studied and vetted the effects of assisted suicide. It is a dangerous practice that is impossible to regulate and unfairly targets people with disabilities.

My 34-year-old daughter, Brigitte and I, have testified at the Delaware legislative hearings each year on this subject. Brigitte has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, profound cognitive disabilities, epilepsy, chronic pain, and multiple other medical disabilities.

I predict that 2022 will be a very active year for US assisted suicide bills, especially in the eastern US. The US assisted suicide lobby are sponsoring bills in many states, but they are focusing on New York and Massachusetts. I predict that they will also focus on bills in Connecticut and Maryland.

The assisted suicide lobby have invested significant money into 2022 campaigns as they fear that they may lose supportive seats in the November 2022 mid-term elections.

I also predict that in many states, the bill that will be debated will be similar to the New Mexico bill (HB 47) that passed in 2021.

“…Give them the option of support. Help them to live their best lives,” … “I’m just very surprised at the timing of this. Instead of institutionalizing death for the disability community, Delaware legislators should focus on ensuring that everyone has the care and resources that they need.

Sara Buscher – Chair, EPC – USA
Alex Schadenberg – Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The state assisted suicide activity report does not include bills that we are expecting to be introduced in the next few weeks. We will update the report when other assisted suicide bills are introduced or bills are defeated.

States with Bills to Legalize Assisted Suicide that were introduced in 2021.

1. Massachusetts: S. 1384, H. 2381 (introduced in 2021).
2. Delaware: HB 140, introduced June 30, 2021. (carried over to 2022).
3. Minnesota: SF 1352, HF 1358 (carried over to 2022)
4. New York: A 4321, S 6471 (carried over to 2022)
5. Pennsylvania: S.B.

This article was published by National Review online on January 26, 2022.

By Wesley J Smith

In recent years, George Will has been writing columns on contentious cultural issues that have, to put it mildly, unpleasantly surprised many of his social-conservative admirers. Perhaps first and foremost among these was his coming out in 2015 as a believer in assisted suicide.

He’s now taken his relatively quiet support a step further, writing two recent columns for the Washington Post that not only boosted nationwide legalization but also sought to normalize suicide as a means of dying for the terminally ill.

The Congressional Resolution 68: Addressing the Risk of Legalizing Assisted Suicide was introduced on February 4, 2022. (Link to the Resolution)

H. CON. RES. 68 – 117th Congress (2021-2022) 

Expressing the sense of the Congress that assisted suicide (sometimes referred to using other terms) puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm.

Whereas “suicide” means the act of intentionally ending one’s own life, preempting death from disease, accident, injury, age, or other condition;

Whereas “assisting in a suicide”, sometimes referred to as death with dignity, end-of-life options, aid-in-dying, or similar phrases, means knowingly and willingly prescribing, providing, dispensing, or distributing to an individual a substance, device, or other means that, if taken, used, ingested, or administered as directed, expected, or instructed, will, with reasonable medical certainty, result in the death of the individual, preempting death from disease, accident, injury, age, or other condition;

Whereas society has a longstanding policy of supporting suicide prevention such as through the efforts of many public and private suicide prevention programs, the benefits of which could be denied under a public policy of assisted suicide;

Whereas assisted suicide most directly threatens the lives of people who are elderly, experience depression, have a disability, or are subject to emotional or financial pressure to end their lives;

Whereas the Oregon Health Authority’s annual reports reveal that pain or the fear of pain is listed second to last (25 percent) among the reasons cited by all patients seeking lethal drugs since 1998, while the top 5 reasons cited are psychological and social concerns: “losing autonomy” (92 percent), “less able to engage in activities that make life enjoyable” (90 percent), “loss of dignity” (79 percent), “losing control of bodily functions” (48 percent), and “burden on family friends/caregivers” (41 percent);

Whereas the Supreme Court has ruled twice (in Washington v.

EPC – USA and the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition are co-sponsoring a webinar on how to defeat assisted suicide in your state.

When January 17, 2022 (7 pm EST)

Register in advance for this meeting: (Registration Link)

We expect that many states will be debating bills to legalize assisted suicide in 2022. 

It is likely that Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York, among many other states, will debate assisted suicide bills. We are predicting a strong push by the assisted suicide lobby in the Northeastern US in 2022.

This webinar will provide information and strategy for groups and individuals defeat assisted suicide bills in their state.