Suicide Advocates Continue to Promote “Medical Aid in Dying” in U.S. and Abroad
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.
Family Council Asks U.S. Attorney’s Office to Enforce Federal Law Against Mail-Order Abortion Drugs
On Friday, Family Council sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas respectfully asking the office to enforce federal law as it applies to mail-order abortion drugs.
Arkansas law generally prohibits abortion except to save the life of the mother, and it is a crime for an abortionist to mail abortion drugs like RU-486 into the state.
But under President Biden, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration loosened its safety protocols to allow mail-order abortion drugs. Pro-abortion states have also enacted “shield laws” for abortionists who mail abortion drugs into states like Arkansas.
All of that has created a dangerous industry of mail-order abortion in Arkansas and across the nation.
However, the federal Comstock Act of 1873 makes it a crime to mail “every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.” Family Council’s letter to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas argues that the federal Comstock Act should prevent abortionists in other states from mailing abortion drugs into Arkansas in violation of state law.
The letter says:
“Since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization returned abortion policy to the states, a disturbing workaround has emerged: the mass mailing of mifepristone directly to patients across state lines, including into states where the people’s elected representatives have enacted strong protections for unborn children.
“Arkansas Code Annotated §§ 5-61-304 and 5-61-404 prohibit abortion except to save the life of the pregnant woman in a medical emergency, and Arkansas Code Annotated § 20-16-1504 says it is unlawful for ‘any manufacturer, supplier, physician, or any other person to provide any abortion-inducing drug via courier, delivery, or mail service.’ The Arkansas General Assembly enacted these laws via the legislative process. However, Aid Access, Plan C, and a constellation of other organizations openly advertise the shipment of mifepristone into states where abortion is restricted or prohibited. This is not a secret operation. It is a deliberate, coordinated effort to circumvent the democratic decisions of states like Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and others that have enacted protections for the unborn. These providers are not merely skirting state law; they are willfully violating federal law.”
Family Council has also recently joined amicus briefs in federal court arguing that mail-order abortion drugs violate the Comstock Act.
Abortion drugs should not be available at all — much less through the mail.
We now know drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol are much more dangerous than the FDA originally thought.
A recent study by the experts at the Ethics and Public Policy Center found nearly 11% of women experienced serious health complications from abortion pills — including sepsis, infection, and life-threatening hemorrhage.
These drugs hurt women and end the lives of unborn children. That’s why we hope our federal officials will take the necessary steps to stop the flow of dangerous abortion drugs across state lines.
You can read the entire letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office here.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.