Does the Constitution permit the government to help people kill themselves?

That is the question Life Legal put squarely before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in our friend of the court (amicus) brief challenging Delaware’s assisted suicide law. 

Our answer to the court is an unequivocal NO.

And we are not alone. A coalition of 14 national medical, legal, and faith-based organizations signed on to our brief—including physicians, bioethicists, disability advocates, and religious leaders united in upholding the dignity of human life.

As we explain in the brief, human life is a “fundamental constitutional right that states have a solemn duty to protect.” Physician-assisted suicide undermines one of the most fundamental principles of American law: that the role of government is to defend life, not facilitate its destruction.

Yet laws like Delaware’s “End of Life Options Act” upend that principle. Instead of saving people from self-harm, the state becomes an accomplice to suicide. 

In every jurisdiction where assisted suicide is legalized, the practice inevitably expands. What begins as an “option” for the terminally ill gradually extends to those with chronic conditions, mental suffering, or even social challenges. What was once presented as a choice becomes an expectation—or even an obligation—especially for those who already feel like a burden because of illness, disability, age, or financial hardship. 

In California, assisted-suicide deaths have increased by more than 700% since its End of Life Option Act took effect—from 111 deaths in the first year to nearly 900 per year today. In Canada, so-called Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) deaths now exceed 16,000 per year, accounting for one in every twenty deaths.  In the Netherlands, minors as young as sixteen can be euthanized without parental consent, twelve-year olds with parental consent, for solely psychological reasons. Even newborn babies have been targeted for euthanasia by the ever-expanding death culture.

Government surveys show that the most common reason patients request assisted suicide is not uncontrolled pain, but “the inability to engage in meaningful activities.” 

At Life Legal, we believe compassion never means abandoning someone to death. It means protecting life and sharing in people’s suffering—especially when they are most at risk. 

Because of you, Life Legal continues to fight the culture of death in courts across the country—defending the unborn, protecting vulnerable patients and families, and standing up for those whose lives are treated as disposable.

You make this possible.