Assisted Suicide, Once Legal Inevitably Expands

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.  (pictured right).

When a jurisdiction is debating an assisted suicide bill, many organizations and individuals present information about the necessary safeguards that the jurisdiction must implement to “safely” legalize assisted suicide.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition knows that it is not possible to “safely” legalize assisted suicide and once legal the law will inevitably expand.

Great Britain is currently debating an assisted suicide bill  sponsored by Kim Leadbeater. Many states have already introduced assisted suicide bills in 2025 and we anticipate many more legalization bills this year. We know that some states that have legalized assisted suicide will debate bills to expand their law.  

This article focuses on the experience with assisted suicide in jurisdictions where it is legal. 

Nearly every jurisdiction that has legalized assisted suicide, later expanded their law.

The assisted suicide lobby groups know that it is more difficult to legalize assisted suicide than it is to expand the law once it is legal.

Swiss Canton Cuts a Deal with Suicide Group

By Alex Schadenberg  

An article by Marc Leutenegger that was published by Swissinfo.ch on February 21, 2025 states that the Swiss Canton Solothurn has cut a deal with the Pegasus assisted suicide group that will save money for the Canton by eliminating the need for the authorities to send a legal and medical team to investigate the death. Leutenegger reported that:

..the core of an agreement, unprecedented in Switzerland, that was signed late last year between canton Solothurn and the right-to-die organisation Pegasos. Under the new arrangement, if Pegasos provides video evidence that the suicide was carried out by the person themselves, as well as additional information, then the authorities do not send in a legal and medical team to investigate the death. 

The Real Reason Woke Policies Exist

Erik Carlson Mar 04, 2025  

 

It is important to understand that many of the people who create, promote and fund movements and policies such as DEI, BLM, the Climate Change and LGBTQ+ agendas may not have the same goals, beliefs or values as the people who simply adhere to and support these types of movements and policies at a foot soldier level.

Many who follow and support these movements do so in good faith and believe that these movements and policies were created to do good, to provide a level playing field for people they believe are marginalized or victimized. Many people believe they are making the world a better place through adherence to these policies.

One Friday afternoon each month, to this day, I drive by a group of older white people at a busy intersection on my way home from work. In a very diverse, yet non-black area, they hold up BLM signs to the drivers passing by in the hopes of getting a reaction. I just roll my eyes at them when I drive by. They try to elicit honks and waves; they seem to crave attention; in my opinion, it somehow makes them feel better about themselves. Perhaps it washes away their white liberal boomer guilt.

Again, in my opinion, these particular people believe they are making a difference.

Kansas Governor Signs Bill Making Assisted Suicide a Crime

WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - Jennifer Dennis is one of several mothers who testified in Topeka this year in favor of a bill to make it a crime to encourage someone to take their own life, after her son William lost his life to suicide after being encouraged by people in an online forum.

Wednesday morning, Gov. Laura Kelly signed the bill into law.

"I felt like, for the first time that people get it, that they understand there's a problem, the suicide rates are a problem," Dennis said. "And that this was such a positive win for the state of Kansas."

As the bill made its way through the statehouse, many more stories surfaced of families who went through the same thing.

Kristi Khan of Colby lost her son, Kai, who was transgender. He'd also been on this same website.

"When I reached out to the detective on my son's case and said, 'Did you see all this?' and he's like, 'Well, it's not against the law,'" Khan said. "So I am beyond thrilled to see that Kansas is doing this. And I'm hoping that other states will see this and follow suit."

My Personal Experience With Assisted Suicide

By Margaret Dore

In another life, most likely in 1980 when I was 23 years old, I talked three young men down from suicide.

What I think happened is that a final exit network type person had given them my phone number by mistake. This was before the age of caller ID.

I was contacted by each of the three young men over a period of time, each one wanting assistance to kill himself. 

I called a suicide prevention person to ask what I should do, i.e., with regard to the first one. The person told me to ask the suicidal person why? To engage him.  

So that’s what I did. I met each one at a local park, which I thought would be safe for me and asked him why, and then I tried to expand to other topics.  

The last one I got him laughing. He told me that he no longer felt like killing himself.

To the best of my knowledge they all lived, but I don't know for sure.

People in Distress Need Support, Not a Fast-Track to Death

The Connecticut General Assembly will again skip considering a bill that would provide a legal avenue for medical aid in dying, or physician-assisted suicide [or euthanasia], in the state. 

“I’m disappointed,” said state Rep. Josh Elliott, a Hamden Democrat who’s been a longtime legislative champion of the proposal. “But in this work you get used to it. No matter how refined your legislative agenda is, it always ends up functionally being throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. It didn’t stick this year — but now in my fifth term, I know that there is always next year.”

Elliott had introduced the bill this year alongside two colleagues, but it was not raised by the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee before a deadline to advance it further.

CT Insider reported in 2024 that Elliott and advocates planned to skip that year’s session in the hopes of taking it up again this year....

“Second Thoughts Connecticut was glad to hear that our state legislature continues to move cautiously when it comes to medical assisted suicide,” said Cathy Ludlum [pictured above] of Second Thoughts Connecticut, a group of disability rights advocates opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide.

“Legislators have wisely stopped it from coming here this year, and we are thankful,” Ludlum said. “People in distress need support, not a fast-track to death.”

Doctors, Disability Activists Split on Support for Controversial Procedure

byAndrew Adams

 

 

CHICAGO — Lawmakers are considering legalizing a controversial medical practice that proponents say could ease suffering for the terminally ill.

It’s sometimes called “assisted suicide,” although physicians and advocates for the practice prefer the term “medical aid in dying,” or MAID.

While Compassion & Choices — a group that advocates for medical aid in dying policies — found a majority of Illinois voters supported legalizing MAID in a 2023 poll, some critics call the process “barbaric.”

Proposed Oregon Bill Would Allow Non-Physicians to Legally Participate in Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia

By Leslie Wolfgang | February 18, 2025, 12:53pm 

An Oregon bill would expand the state’s current law to permit physician assistants and nurse practitioners to prescribe “medication” to help a person to commit suicide. 

Senate Bill 1003 changes the term “attending physician” to “prescribing provider,” and “consulting physician” to “consulting provider.” The term “provider” would be defined as a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner under Oregon law. This bill represents the first time that non-physicians would be authorized to assist the killing of a person in the United States.  

Nurses participate in the euthanasia and assisted suicide of persons in Canada, where the country’s “Medical Assistance In Dying” (MAiD) rates are already high and continuing to increase. According to 2023 statistics, these practitioner-assisted killings account for 4.7%, or 1 in 20 deaths, in Canada.

The Extreme Legal Theory Behind Trump’s First Month in Office

By Michael Waldman, 02/20/25* 

Over President’s Day weekend, Donald Trump posted, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” This is a quote attributed to Napoleon — you know, the guy who crowned himself emperor. For a long time, the trope went that people who were delusional thought they were Napoleon. No one’s laughing now.  

Less incendiary but perhaps more consequential, yesterday Trump signed an executive order that purports to seize control of independent agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. These expert bodies fight monopolies, police bank safety, organize the broadcast industry, and more. They are central to the entire edifice of modern government, built up over the past 140 years, which ensures that the free market does not devolve into an abusive free-for-all. 

The new president’s power grab may get clothed in legalistic garb by the highest court in the land, and some academics and advocates will applaud the decision. Very soon, we will be hearing a lot about the “unitary executive theory.” 

The framers of the Constitution were vague about what the president could and could not do. They knew that George Washington would be the first, but beyond that, things were a bit fuzzy. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in 1952 that what they intended “must be divined from materials almost as enigmatic as the dreams Joseph was called upon to interpret for Pharaoh.”

Commentary: Defensive Gun Uses Show Faulty Premise of California Gun Laws

Amy Swearer | Grace McNabnay | February 18, 2025

As wildfires raged last month in California, tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, often with just minutes of warning. To make matters worse, looters took advantage of the chaos and lack of police resources, showing up in droves to ransack evacuated areas—sometimes as helpless residents looked on in horror as their doorbell cameras captured the looting in real time.

Fortunately for residents of at least some evacuated areas, a handful of their armed neighbors stayed behind to protect their homes and livelihoods from would-be looters—in some cases, bravely patrolling their streets with firearms in what certainly seemed to be open defiance of the state’s public carry laws.

But for countless others, the state’s restrictive gun laws undoubtedly complicated their ability to defend their homes, at the very least compounding their anxiety by raising questions about their legal rights in a state notorious for treating lawful gun owners as the enemy of public safety. Barriers like mandatory waiting periods, meanwhile, ensured that Californians who didn’t already own guns would be kept from exercising one of their most fundamental rights precisely when it mattered most. 

‘They Stole His Practice’: Medical Board Drops Case Against Canadian Doctor Who Questioned COVID Vaccines

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/medical-board-drops-case-canadian-doctor-covid-vaccines/?utm_id=202502 

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC) earlier this month withdrew its case against a Canadian doctor who faced misconduct allegations over social media posts questioning the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and promoting ivermectin.

The charges against Dr. Charles Hoffe of Lytton, British Columbia [pictured here], an emergency room doctor with over 30 years of experience, had been lingering since 2022.

On Feb. 5, the CPSBC informed Hoffe’s attorney, Lee Turner, that it was withdrawing its disciplinary proceedings. According to The Epoch Times, CPSBC said the process had dragged on too long. According to Castanet Kamloops, CPSBC said the circumstances around Hoffe’s citation “materially changed.”

“The material change in circumstances is the fact that the emergency phase of COVID-19 has passed,” Castanet reported.