Pro-Life Advocates Won Multiple Victories Against Assisted Suicide in 2024
On September 20, Delaware Governor John Carney vetoed Assisted Suicide Bill HB 140. His statement can be read here.
When Governor Carney vetoed HB 140 he continued the success with no new state having legalized assisted suicide in the past three years.
On November 5, West Virginia votes passed Amendment 1, preventing the legalization of assisted suicide, by a narrow victory with 50.5% voting YES. West Virginia is the first U.S. State to create a constitutional protection from assisted suicide.
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Even though 2024 represented one of the most successful years in defeating at least 20 state assisted suicide bills, we will not rest.
2025 is expected to be as busy a year as 2024.
The assisted suicide lobby has already announced the introduction of a 2025 Delaware assisted suicide bill. The new bill will need to be defeated in the House or Senate since Delaware Governor-elect Matt Meyer has expressed support for legalizing assisted suicide.
The New York assisted suicide lobby announced the introduction of their 2025 assisted suicide bill with a planned campaign kickoff and lobby day with other scheduled events. New York has faced assisted suicide bills nearly every year since 2016. The assisted suicide lobby has also prepared a bill for Missouri, which is not likely to pass.
In fact we expect to see at least 20 states debate assisted suicide bills in 2025.
Nearly every state that has legalized assisted suicide has expanded the law.
Colorado, which legalized assisted suicide in 2016, in 2024 passed Senate Bill 24-068. It expanded the Colorado assisted suicide law by: allowing advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe lethal poison; reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 7 days; and allowing doctors or advanced practice registered nurse to waive the waiting period if the person is near to death.
The original version of SB 24-068 would have removed the residency requirement for assisted suicide in Colorado.
In 2023 Washington State expanded their assisted suicide law by allowing advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe lethal poison; by reducing the waiting period to 7 days; and by forcing healthcare institutions and hospices to post their assisted suicide policies.
Washington State has already announced another expansion bill. This bill defines assisted suicide as a “protected healthcare service” and will force healthcare providers to be complicit in promoting assisted suicide.
The Washington State bill is part of the assisted suicide lobby’s strategy of defining assisted suicide as healthcare and forcing healthcare institutions to provide it as a “service.”
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition predicts that assisted suicide will be debated in at least 20 US states, but since Oregon and Vermont removed their residency requirement assisted suicide has also become a national issue.
There is currently a legal challenge by the assisted suicide lobby to force New Jersey to remove it’s state assisted suicide residency requirement.
It is possible that the battle to protect people from assisted suicide might move into the federal realm in 2025 since the assisted suicide lobby has removed state barriers to killing.
The goal of the assisted suicide lobby is to legalize assisted suicide in more states and to expand the scope of the assisted suicide laws in the states that have legalized it.
The goal of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is to prevent the legalization of assisted suicide in states where it is currently illegal while rolling back the legalization of assisted suicide in states where it is legal.
LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.