{"id":331651,"date":"2025-05-21T14:48:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T19:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=331651"},"modified":"2025-05-21T00:04:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T05:04:15","slug":"delaware-governor-assisted-suicide-right-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/delaware-governor-assisted-suicide-right-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Delaware governor: Signing assisted suicide law was ‘right thing to do’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signed<\/a> legislation Monday approving assisted suicide \u2014 making the state the 11th in the nation to do so.<\/p>\n

KEY TAKEAWAYS:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • After nearly a decade of failed attempts, Delaware’s lawmakers and governor have made the approval of assisted killing a reality in the state.<\/li>\n
  • The law, set to take effect January 1, 2026, allows “terminally” ill individuals diagnosed with under six months to life access to life-ending drugs, which can be prescribed by physicians and advanced practice RNs.<\/li>\n
  • National Right to Life’s president says the law “devalu[es] the lives of the disabled, elderly and chronically ill.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    THE DETAILS:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    House Bill 140<\/a> allows a person who has been diagnosed as \u201cterminally\u201d ill with a diagnosis of less than six months to live to qualify for drugs that would end his or her life. Both physicians and advanced practice registered nurses would be permitted to diagnose and approve a patient for assisted death.<\/p>\n

    The bill passed<\/a> both the House and the Senate earlier this year. Just last year, similar legislation made it to the desk of then-Governor John Carney, who vetoed the bill because he said he was “fundamentally opposed” to assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

    Unlike Carney, Meyer appeared enthusiastic at the bill’s passage.<\/p>\n

    “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,” claimed<\/a> Meyer. “For many of you \u2014 many more than me \u2014 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.”<\/p>\n