WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- As legislators in multiple states seek to advance so-called "medical aid in dying" laws, a Catholic ethicist warned the practice was contrary to both Catholic teaching and American ideals.
Supporters of physician-assisted suicide argue the practice protects the autonomy of suffering individuals in their final days, but opponents argue the practice disregards the dignity of human life and leaves those who are ill or dying vulnerable to coercion, among other objections.
Catholic teaching forbids the practice, Joseph Meaney, senior fellow and former president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told OSV News April 16.
"It really goes back to the theological position of Christianity, which is that our lives are not our own, so that life is a gift from God, and that if we reject that gift, it's a grave sin," Meaney said.
He added that the Catholic Church rejects a concept called "vitalism," or the "view that we must preserve life, do everything possible to preserve life at whatever cost," but rather, "our moral responsibility is to do everything that is ordinary care, that is reasonable care to preserve life."
Assisted suicide, or intentionally hastening death, he said, is a rejection of Catholic bioethics and teaching. Similarly, the American Medical Association said on its website that the practice violates its code of ethics, calling it "fundamentally inconsistent with the physician's professional role."
As many as 18 states will consider bills to legalize the practice in 2025, according to the group Death With Dignity, which supports physician-assisted suicide. But a smaller number of states have advanced such bills in 2025, including Illinois and Delaware.
The Delaware House of Representatives in March narrowly passed H.B. 140, legislation that would legalize physician-assisted suicide, sending it to the state Senate for the second time in two years.
Delaware's former Democratic Gov. John Carney vetoed that legislation in 2024, saying in a statement at the time, "I have consistently opposed a state law that would allow physician-assisted suicide."
The Catholic Diocese of Wilmington was among numerous organizations that also opposed the bill.
"Although I understand not everyone shares my views, I am fundamentally and morally opposed to state law enabling someone, even under tragic and painful circumstances, to take their own life," Carney said. But proponents of the bill hope the state's new Democratic Gov. Matt Meyer, who has said he supports physician-assisted suicide, will sign it.
The Illinois Catholic Conference has urged its supporters to tell their lawmakers the state "does not need to legalize assisted suicide."
"What we truly need is increased access to quality health care, enhanced palliative care options, and loving and compassionate support services for those at the end of their lives," they said on their website. "These are the alternatives that uphold the dignity of every person."
At least 10 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have enacted medically assisted euthanasia or medically assisted suicide laws.
States that have followed suit tend to make their legislation similar to Oregon's, limiting the practice to terminally ill adults as well as other attempted guardrails, such as requiring multiple oral requests be made to a doctor, as well as written documentation signed in the presence of witnesses.
Oregon's law requires the Oregon Health Authority to publish an annual statistical report about physician-assisted suicide in the state. Its most recent report said that in 2024, 607 people were reported to the state to have received prescriptions for life-ending medication, while 376 people died in 2024 from ingesting the prescribed medications.
While Oregon's law requires those who elect physician-assisted suicide to be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months, the annual report said of the 376 people who died in 2024, 43 had received prescriptions in previous years.
Meaney argued that while "there's been this push to legalize assisted suicide," there is an argument to be made it is "actually a form of discrimination."
"So there's a kind of a fundamental perspective or viewpoint, right, that young people, you know, who are depressed should not commit suicide, but older people, handicapped people, extremely sick people, that's a rational choice, right?" he said of arguments in support of the practice.
But, he added, "that's like the definition of discrimination, treating the same thing, suicide, in different ways."
