A new database compiled by Aging with Dignity reports that at least 14,446 Americans have died by assisted suicide since 1997. Oregon was the first state to legalize assisted suicide in 1997. The actual number of assisted suicides is probably higher because not all states report the data. Aging with Dignity compiled reported U.S. assisted suicide data from every state since 1997 for this report.
2 days ago
Aging with Dignity, a group inspired by Mother Teresa, released a first-of-its-kind database compiling all reported U.S. assisted suicide data since 1997.1 2 3
It records 14,446 deaths, but notes the actual number is likely higher due to incomplete reporting.1 2 3
New Mexico and Montana have never released reports, while Vermont and D.C. lack recent figures.1 2 3
California leads with over 5,000 deaths in under a decade, exceeding 1,000 in a single year, yet hundreds of required forms are missing annually.1 2 3
The report highlights "utter laxity" in state enforcement, often violating laws.1 2 3
Psychiatric screenings are rare, occurring in less than 1% of cases in Oregon and Washington.1 2 3
Non-terminal illnesses like lupus, anorexia, diabetes, and fall complications now qualify patients.1 2 3
Cases labeled "other" have exploded, obscuring true eligibility trends.1 2 3
Only some states track issues like seizures and vomiting, with Oregon rates reaching 14%.1 2 3
Assisted suicide deaths rose nearly 1,000% in the last decade.1 2 3
Jamie Towey warns vulnerable people face danger as safeguards erode and eligibility broadens, mirroring Canada's trends.1 2 3
Matt Vallière of Patients’ Rights Action Fund urges transparency, public awareness, and lawmakers to reject the practice.1 2 3
Assisted suicide was recently legalized in New York and Delaware.1 2 3
The database aims to inform researchers, commentators, and citizens against expansion.1 2 3
Evaluate Catholic teaching on assisted suicide safeguards
Catholic teaching firmly rejects assisted suicide as intrinsically evil, with no safeguards capable of rendering it morally licit. This position, rooted in the natural moral law, Scripture, Tradition, and the ordinary Magisterium, holds that assisted suicide constitutes a grave violation of human dignity, equivalent to homicide or suicide, and cannot be justified by appeals to autonomy, compassion, or procedural protections. Even requests stemming from despair do not alter its objective immorality, as subjective factors like reduced guilt do not change the act's inherent wrongness.
The Church teaches that assisted suicide—providing means or direct aid for a person to end their own life—is always gravely immoral, involving malice akin to suicide or murder.
Euthanasia, therefore, is an intrinsically evil act, in every situation or circumstance. ... Depending on the circumstances, this practice involves the malice proper to suicide or murder.
This doctrine is definitive, based on God's sovereignty over life and death (cf. Dt 32:39; Wis 16:13). Assisting suicide implicates the helper in breaking the theological virtue of hope and the human covenant, turning another from God and repudiating life's value. No "end can justify" it, and it tolerates no formal or immediate cooperation.
Pope John Paul II equates it to unexcusable injustice:
To concur with the intention of another person to commit suicide and to help in carrying it out through so-called "assisted suicide" means to cooperate in, and at times to be the actual perpetrator of, an injustice which can never be excused, even if it is requested.
Self-determination claims fail, as life is not arbitrarily disposable; doctors cannot execute a "non-existent right."
Catholic sources dismiss safeguards—such as mental health evaluations, waiting periods, or multiple approvals—as insufficient to legitimize assisted suicide. These do not address the act's moral object: an action or omission intended to cause death to eliminate suffering. Even "good faith" errors or reduced culpability (e.g., from anguish) leave the act intrinsically rejectable.
Samaritanus bonus warns of "back door" euthanasia via end-of-life protocols like Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders or Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST), initially for avoiding aggressive care but now abused euthanasically without consent. In legalized contexts, these create ambiguity, binding staff to patient declarations that undermine their duty to protect life. Abuses occur, including on those with depression or without true desire for death, confirming safeguards fail against a "culture of waste" valuing life by utility.
Today these protocols cause serious problems regarding the duty to protect the life of patients ... medical staff feel increasingly bound by the self-determination expressed in patient declarations that deprive physicians of their freedom and duty to safeguard life.
Utilitarian notions of "dignified death" or "quality of life" (measured by efficiency, well-being, or beauty) are rejected as ideologically flawed, ignoring spiritual dimensions. True compassion shares suffering, not kills; euthanasia perverts mercy.
Laws with safeguards degrade justice, eroding trust and the right to life foundational to all rights. Approvers become accomplices in grave sin and scandal.
Pastoral care demands accompaniment without complicity. Those requesting assisted suicide lack disposition for Penance, Anointing, or Viaticum until renouncing the plan (e.g., canceling registrations). Delay is medicinal, not condemnatory, presuming possible conversion; unconscious patients may receive conditionally if repentance is indicated. Chaplains must avoid presence at euthanasia to prevent scandal.
The Church urges rejecting legalization entirely, as it undermines civil society. Instead, prioritize palliative care, pain relief, ordinary support, and human companionship—fulfilling the request for "sympathy and support in the time of trial." This upholds dignity from conception to natural death.
In summary, Catholic teaching evaluates assisted suicide safeguards as wholly inadequate: the act remains a crime against life, with no procedural veneer altering its intrinsic evil. Fidelity requires rejecting it outright, promoting true care that honors God's gift of life.