Democrat Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer signed a bill into law Tuesday that legalizes assisted suicide in the state.
The law allows terminally ill patients “to request and self-administer medication to end the individual’s life” with the approval of two medical professionals. Delaware has been weighing similar legislation since 2015, but previous iterations of the bill failed to gain the necessary support required to become state law.
“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 at the signing, according to Delaware Public Media. “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.” (RELATED: Nearly 20 States Are Weighing Legislation That Would Make Assisted Suicide Legal)
Members of the California Right to Life Coalition show their opposition to the Hemlock Society meeting at the Bahia resort January 10, 2003 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
The bill passed the House 21-17 and 11-8 in the Senate.
The law describes the act as “humane and dignified,” though opponents of assisted suicide object to the practice on moral and religious grounds, in addition to concerns that patients considering assisted suicide could be ripe for coercion. A patient who wants to go through with an assisted suicide is required to make two verbal and one written request before the life-ending drug can be prescribed under the law’s terms.
Former Delaware Democrat Gov. John Carey vetoed a previous iteration of the bill in 2024, stating he did not “believe a firm consensus has been reached on what is a very difficult issue.” Assisted suicide has generated controversy nationwide, though other states including Oregon and New Jersey have managed to pass such laws, and Canada legalized its own framework for assisted suicide in 2016.
A number of Catholics in Delaware were among the leading opponents of the state’s assisted suicide bill, and Bishop William E. Koenig of the Wilmington Diocese condemned it in April as it made its way through the state legislature.
“Our Catholic Faith teaches us that all life is sacred, from the moment of conception to natural death,” Koenig said in the April statement. “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.”
Meyer’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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