Suicide Advocates Continue to Promote “Medical Aid in Dying” in U.S. and Abroad

Bioethics, Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, , , , ,

Advocates for assisted suicide continue to promote laws letting people receive prescriptions for lethal drugs.

In Ohio, legislators recently introduced an assisted suicide measure, arguing that “medical aid in dying” provides terminally ill people with a compassionate option. But our friends at the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) rightly called the legislation “a Trojan horse for mandated death” that would pressure vulnerable people to end their lives via assisted suicide.

Experiences elsewhere have shown CCV’s concerns about assisted suicide are spot on.

In 1997, Oregon became the first state in America to legalize physician-assisted suicide, and since then policymakers have worked to make it easier for people to receive prescriptions for lethal drugs. In fact, a record 637 lethal prescriptions for assisted suicide were written in Oregon last year.

But out of those hundreds of patients, only two were referred for psychiatric evaluation before being given a prescription for suicide. That is a serious failure.

Besides failing to address patients’ mental and emotional health concerns, there is evidence that many may people feel financially pressured to opt for assisted suicide. More than one in 20 people (6%) who asked for assisted suicide in Oregon last year said they were concerned about the financial implications of medical treatment. That’s deeply concerning.

Despite these problems, supporters of assisted suicide have pushed to expand it globally. Forbes reports:

“In Belgium, nearly 4,500 patients died from medically-assisted suicide in 2025, accounting for 4% of all deaths. And in Spain, more than 1,000 patients received physician-assisted death last year. Other countries—including Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria—have also legalized medically assisted dying. In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons passed an assisted-dying bill that has since stalled in the House of Lords.

“What’s notable is not just the growth of these programs but their scope.

“In some countries, eligibility has expanded beyond patients who are terminally ill to include those with chronic conditions or, in rare cases, severe psychological distress.”

Patients who are in distress need counseling and support — not a deadly prescription.

Experience has shown that assisted suicide doesn’t help people who are sick or dying, and it doesn’t remain limited to a few cases.

In the U.S., insurance companies have refused to pay for patients’ medical care, but have offered to cover assisted suicide drugs.

Patients in Europe and Canada reportedly have been denied care or actively euthanized as a result of assisted suicide laws.

In some countries, assisted suicide and euthanasia are driving palliative care specialists to quit. That hurts everyone.

Assisted suicide fundamentally changes the doctor-patient relationship from healing to killing.

The Hippocratic Oath promises to “first, do no harm.” Prescribing lethal drugs violates that sacred trust.

All of this underscores why Family Council has strongly opposed assisted suicide in Arkansas.

Being pro-life means believing innocent human life is sacred from conception until natural death.

Just like abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide violate the sanctity of innocent human life.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Investigation Shows Birth Tourism Centers Operating on American Soil

Bioethics, Surrogacy, , , , ,

A new investigation shows Chinese birth tourism centers are operating on U.S. soil — and the problem may be bigger than most Americans realize.

We have written repeatedly how commercial surrogacy laws in the U.S. make it possible for corporations and wealthy couples pay women thousands of dollars to carry children for them, and news outlets report Chinese nationals are exploiting America’s largely unregulated surrogacy industry to acquire children born in the U.S. with U.S. citizenship. But concerns over “birth tourism” are growing in other ways.

The Daily Wire recently visited several homes in Houston that the State of Texas says are helping Chinese nationals travel to the U.S. on tourist visas “for the sole purpose of giving birth.” The homes are tied to a birthing center that has allegedly facilitated the births of more than 1,000 American-born babies who are then taken back to China. Because the children are born on U.S. soil, they receive birthright citizenship — even though the parents intend to raise the children in China.

This is not a small or isolated problem. Peter Schweizer, President of the Government Accountability Institute, testified before the U.S. Senate in March that between 750,000 and 1.5 million Chinese babies have been born in the U.S. specifically to obtain American citizenship — with the intention of being raised in China. In his testimony, Schweizer said:

These individuals grow up in China, often educated in CCP-controlled schools with distorted views of U.S. history, values, and culture. They have no lived connection or demonstrated allegiance to our country, yet they possess full rights as U.S. citizens: the ability to vote in elections, relocate here at will, and—upon turning 21—sponsor their parents as permanent residents.

In his testimony, Schweizer also pointed out how some birth tourism is carried out by people traveling to the U.S. on tourist visas while other birth tourism is committed by hiring commercial surrogates to bear children in the U.S.

Birth tourism wrongly exploits birthright citizenship, which is a legal principle meant to protect people born in the U.S. When it’s done in conjunction with commercial surrogacy, it also demeans women and children.

Social commentators and policymakers worldwide have raised concerns about how commercial surrogacy financially pressures women into providing children for paying customers.

Commercial surrogacy deliberately deprives children of their biological mothers or fathers.

It treats pregnancy like a “service” that can be purchased.

It treats women like commodities, and it treats children like products that can be made to order and sold for profit.

Commercial surrogacy also relies heavily on in vitro fertilization and other reproductive technologies that have serious problems of their own.

That’s part of the reason Family Council has opposed commercial surrogacy in Arkansas.

Human beings are not products that can be made to order, bought, or sold. Our laws need to respect that fact. Policymakers should take steps to address commercial surrogacy and “birth tourism” in America.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Florida Lawmakers Add Surrogacy Ban to Foreign Interference Measure

Bioethics, Surrogacy,

Last week, Florida lawmakers amended a foreign interference bill to prohibit commercial surrogacy contracts with citizens of certain countries.

In commercial surrogacy, corporate agencies hire women to carry children for paying customers — some of whom may be foreign nationals.

Florida’s H.B. 905 is intended to stop China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria from interfering in business or politics in the Sunshine State. The measure reportedly would prevent state and local governments from contracting with individuals and businesses closely associated with those countries when it comes to matters like critical infrastructure or information technology.

On March 3, the Florida House of Representatives amended the bill to address commercial surrogacy contracts as well. The amendment effectively prevents, for example, a Russian or Chinese citizen from signing a commercial surrogacy contract with someone in Florida.

Arkansas U.S. Senator Tom Cotton and Florida U.S. Sen. Rick Scott recently urged the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate surrogacy centers operated by foreign nationals.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the senators wrote,

“Recent reports have uncovered more than 107 Chinese-owned surrogacy agencies operating in Southern California alone. These agencies cater almost exclusively to wealthy Chinese clients, and some are affiliated with Chinese state-owned entities. Chinese nationals pay women living in the United States more than $50,000 to serve as surrogates. The children are born on United States soil and granted automatic citizenship. And in most cases, the infants are promptly flown to China and raised there under the direct influence of the Chinese Communist Party.”

We have written many times about how commercial surrogacy is a largely unregulated industry that exploits women and hurts children.

Unlike many other countries, the United States has relatively few restrictions on surrogacy — and that’s a problem.

Last year The Wall Street Journal uncovered how Chinese billionaires are taking advantage of America’s surrogacy industry to create what some call “mega-families” with dozens or even hundreds of children.

The Wall Street Journal also has written about allegations of financial fraud among commercial surrogacy businesses.

In December, The New York Times and NBC News both reported about investigations into a surrogacy agency that abruptly shutdown, causing clients to lose an estimated $2 – $5 million total.

News outlets have reported that a sex offender convicted of crimes involving children was able to obtain a child through surrogacy in Pennsylvania as a result of lax state regulations.

And The New Yorker reported last month that a wealthy couple in Los Angeles allegedly used a surrogacy agency they operated to hire dozens of women across the U.S. to carry more than 20 children for them. According to the magazine, the children were removed from the home and placed in foster care after one of them was hospitalized with injuries “consistent with ‘those sustained during a car accident or from being shaken.’”

Stories like these underscore why social commentators and policymakers worldwide have raised concerns about commercial surrogacy.

It’s bad when commercial surrogacy goes wrong — but it’s important to remember that surrogacy never “goes right” either.

Commercial surrogacy deliberately deprives children of their biological mothers or fathers.

It treats pregnancy like a “service” that can be purchased.

It treats women like commodities, and it treats children like products that can be made to order and sold for profit.

Commercial surrogacy also relies heavily on in vitro fertilization and other reproductive technologies that have serious problems of their own.

Human beings are not products that can be made to order, bought, and sold. That’s why it’s essential for policymakers to enact real restrictions on commercial surrogacy contracts and agencies.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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