WASHINGTON — Delaware Governor Matt Meyer tragically signed the state’s assisted suicide bill into law. Delaware’s law passed in the legislature by one vote after ten years of public opposition.

The following is a statement from Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life:

Delaware’s new law puts lives at risk. Assisted suicide laws offer no compassion, no hope, and no help for vulnerable members of our society. 

End-of-life discussions should focus on palliative care, hospice, and support options. Assisted suicide shifts the focus from life-affirming care to premature death and erodes the public trust in healthcare and medical doctors. 

So-called safeguards do not work. No safeguard can fully prevent subtle pressures, as evidenced by Dutch Alzheimer’s cases where patients were euthanized despite earlier expressions of doubt or resistance, including a widely reported case in which a woman was euthanized against her will while being physically restrained by her family and doctor. 

The horror of assisted suicide is that many of the most vulnerable in our society are pressured to “choose” assisted suicide which normalizes a culture of death—devaluing the lives of the disabled, elderly, and chronically ill. As society attitudes shift, legalization creates a “duty to die” mindset and puts our most vulnerable members of society at risk.

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates, is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.