Allowing doctors to help patients kill themselves isn’t “compassionate” but instead pressures vulnerable patients to “choose” death, erodes trust in the medical profession, and undermines the sanctity of life.
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, D, yesterday signed a bill into law that will permit terminally ill adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live to legally request and self-administer medication to end their lives.
“Today, Delaware joins a growing number of states in recognizing that end-of-life decisions belong to patients, not politicians,” Meyer said. “This law is about compassion, dignity, and respect. It gives people facing unimaginable suffering the ability to choose peace and comfort, surrounded by those they love. After years of debate, I am proud to sign HB 140 into law.”
With his signature, Delaware is now the 11th U.S. state to legalize physician-assisted suicide (sometimes known as medical aid in dying), joining California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington State, along with Washington, D.C.
Nearly 20 other states have proposed legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide
The Delaware Senate had narrowly passed House Bill 140, also known as the Ron Silverio/Heather Block Delaware End-of-Life Options Act, on April 17 by a vote of 11-8, with two abstentions, sending it to Meyer’s desk.
The passage of HB 140, sponsored by Rep. Eric Morrison, D, and Sen. Bryan Townsend, D, follows a decade-long effort to legalize medical aid in dying in Delaware.
A similar bill passed the General Assembly in 2024 was vetoed by then-Gov. John Carney, D, who said he was “fundamentally and morally opposed” to letting people kill themselves under the guidance of state law.
By contrast, Meyer, who was elected in November, has stated that Delaware residents “should have a right to exercise their right to die.”
Supporters say the law includes several procedural safeguards. Two healthcare providers must confirm the patient’s terminal diagnosis and mental capacity. Patients must make two verbal requests and one written request for the medication, and they must be informed of all end-of-life care options, including palliative and hospice care.
A psychological evaluation is required if either healthcare provider suspects the patient lacks decision-making capacity. The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services is tasked with collecting compliance data and may share information with the Division of Professional Regulation if non-compliance is suspected.
The law would take effect upon establishing final regulations or on January 1, 2026, whichever comes first.
Delaware’s new law is highly controversial.
Supporters, including advocacy groups like Compassion & Choices, view it as a compassionate option for terminally ill individuals to avoid unnecessary suffering.
Proponents also argue that the state’s voters support the law. A 2020 poll indicated that approximately 72 percent of Delaware voters favored medical aid in dying legislation. A 2022 survey found that nearly three-quarters of Delaware physicians supported such legislation, with many expressing a desire for the option themselves if faced with a terminal illness.
Opponents argue that the new law “erodes public trust in healthcare and doctors” and could pressure vulnerable populations, including the elderly and disabled, into agreeing to death against their will. “Delaware’s new law puts lives at risk,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, in a statement, adding,
“So-called safeguards do not work. No safeguard can fully prevent subtle pressures, as evidenced by Dutch Alzheimer’s cases where patients were euthanized despite earlier expressions of doubt or resistance, including a widely reported case in which a woman was euthanized against her will while being physically restrained by her family and doctor.
The horror of assisted suicide is that many of the most vulnerable in our society are pressured to ‘choose’ assisted suicide which normalizes a culture of death—devaluing the lives of the disabled, elderly, and chronically ill. As society attitudes shift, legalization creates a ‘duty to die’ mindset and puts our most vulnerable members of society at risk.”
Instead of pushing death, the healthcare industry should focus on making terminal patients comfortable by putting more resources into palliative care, hospice, and support options, Tobias says.
Another opponent, the Catholic Advocacy Network for Delaware, had previously urged Delaware residents to oppose the legislation, and ultimately more than 11,000 postcards were sent to Delaware legislators communicating opposition to the bill.
Catholic Bishop Edward Koenig of the Wilmington Diocese noted 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.”
This law is yet another attack on God’s created order, an order in which He alone has sovereignty and dominion over the time and place of birth and death.
But even taking God out of the equation, legalizing physician assisted suicide is just bad policy. Advocates for hastening death believe that they can somehow avoid the consequences of such a morally fraught issue. But, in fact, every effort to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia has always resulted in expansion and abuse.
Eligibility may initially apply only to “the terminally ill,” as Delaware’s law does, but it will inevitably evolve to include those whose prospects are “unlikely to improve” or those who simply find life to be unbearable and want to go out on their “own terms.”
One need only look to Canada to see how quickly the slippery slope can take effect.
Canada’s Supreme Court legalized euthanasia in February 2015 for those with “grievous and irremediable medical conditions.”
Within a year, 1,018 people died as part of the Canada’s new, euphemistically titled Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) program, which supposedly polices strict boundaries around who, and who is not, eligible for physician assisted death. However, by 2023, that number had jumped to 15,300, a 14-fold increase in just eight years, meaning that 1 in 20 deaths in Canada are now the result of euthanasia.
And the standard of “grievous and irremediable medical conditions” under MAID has expanded to include not just cancer, heart disease, or ALS but also depression, fear of future suffering and loss of autonomy, homelessness, disability, suicide, and even bedsores.
What’s more, in embracing physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, governments are turning doctors from trusted healers into active agents of death. This not only leads to increasing distrust in the medical profession but it opens the door for others to believe that they too can be “compassionate” by helping someone end their life.
This issue isn’t just about practicality and medical ethics, however. It always, and ultimately, is a question of who has dominion over life.
The Christian worldview affirms that life is a sacred gift from God, not a possession to discard when circumstances grow difficult. As Psalm 139:16 declares, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Choosing to end life prematurely, no matter how dignified the method, removes that authority from God’s hands and places it into our own.
Supporters of HB 140 highlight procedural safeguards and cite polls reflecting public support. As followers of Christ, our moral compass is not directed by popular opinion or legislative trends. Jesus’s willingness to endure suffering for a greater purpose, coupled with His command for believers to care for the vulnerable, calls us to uphold a higher moral standard.
Terminally ill individuals deserve compassionate care that affirms their dignity without compromising their worth. True compassion accompanies people through suffering by offering better pain and symptom management, the presence of family and friends, prayer, and ongoing support grounded in hope.
Christians must respond by speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), advocating for life from conception to natural death, and supporting legislation that honors God’s image in every human being. As more states move toward legalizing assisted suicide, the Church must rise as a voice for life, resisting a culture of death and embracing the call to walk with those who face terminal illness.
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