DOVER, Delaware (LifeSiteNews) – Delaware Democrat Gov. Matt Meyer signed HB 140 into law Tuesday, legalizing physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, framing it as a compassionate decision while pro-lifers warn it devalues human life.
Starting in January at the latest, the bill will permit patients diagnosed as having less than six months to live “to request and self-administer medication to end the individual’s life” as long as two medical professionals (meaning advanced practice registered nurses as well as doctors) sign off on it.
“This signing today is about relieving suffering and giving families the comfort of knowing that their loved one was able to pass on their own terms without unnecessary pain and surrounded by the people they love the most,” Meyer said. “For many of you — many more than me — this has been a long journey. For nearly a decade, this idea has been debated and delayed but always defended by those of you who believed deeply that it was the right thing to do, and it’s because of you that we’re here today and because of that courage I will be signing that bill.”
Bishop William Koenig of the Diocese of Wilmington has a different view: “Our Catholic Faith teaches us that all life is sacred, from the moment of conception to natural death. This means that there is a great distinction between, on the one hand, death that comes naturally and, on the other hand, performing actions to bring on death. We are never required to undergo medical treatments that are ‘extraordinary’ (i.e., treatments that are burdensome, costly, or offer little hope of benefit). Not undergoing such treatments, however, is much different from having a physician providing the means for a patient to end one’s life.”
Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF) executive director Matt Vallière recently argued that current euthanasia programs in the United States constitute discrimination against patients with life-threatening conditions in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as when a state will “will pay for every instance of assisted suicide” but not palliative care, “I don’t call that autonomy, I call that eugenics.”
Live Action’s Bridget Sielicki further noted that “because a paralytic is involved, a person can look peaceful, while they actually drown to death in their own bodily secretions. Experimental assisted suicide drugs have led to the ‘burning of patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain.’ Furthermore, a study in the medical journal Anaesthesia found that a third of patients took up to 30 hours to die after ingesting assisted-suicide drugs, while four percent took seven days to die.”
With the addition of Delaware, 10 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia currently allow assisted suicide (the linked chart has not been updated to include Delaware as of publication). Another bill to legalize euthanasia recently failed in Maryland, however.
Support is available to talk those struggling with suicidal thoughts out of ending their lives. The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988.
