Literature Review

French lawmakers approve assisted dying bill Le Monde with AP and AFP; 5/27/25France's Assemblée Nationale adopted a bill on Tuesday, May 27, to allow adults with incurable illnesses to take lethal medication, the initial step in a lengthy process that could grant patients medical assistance to end their lives in clearly defined circumstances. The bill received 305 votes in favor and 199 against, after all parties in parliament allowed their lawmakers a free vote on the issue. It will now be sent to the Sénat for further debate. A definitive vote on the bill could take months to be scheduled. In parallel, another bill on palliative care, meant to reinforce measures to relieve pain and preserve patients' dignity, was also adopted on Tuesday, unanimously. 

Colorado end-of-life care residency requirement challenged Bloomberg Law; by Ryan Autullo; 5/22/25 A terminally ill Minnesota man is asking a federal court to let doctors in Colorado administer drugs to him so he can die peacefully there, a challenge to the state’s residency requirement in accessing end-of-life care. Prohibiting Colorado doctors from giving non-residents drugs to ease suffering in their final months is unconstitutional, lawyers for Jeff McComas wrote in a complaint filed Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Colorado.

After multi-year battle, Delaware Medical-Aid-in-Dying bill is law WDEL.com 1150AM and 101.7 FM - Delaware's News Now; by Mark Fowser; 5/20/25, 1:38pm ET Delaware is now the 12th jurisdiction to allow adults who are terminally ill and want to bring an end to their suffering to request and self-administer medication that would end their lives. Governor Matt Meyer Tuesday signed Delaware's Medical Aid in Dying legislation (House Bill 140) into law, which was passed by the General Assembly earlier this year. The measure also passed last year after a ten-year battle, but was vetoed by then-Governor John Carney. "For those with terminal illness who are seeking out more choices at end of life, the signing of this bill provides those in that circumstance one more option than they had just yesterday," Tim Appleton with The Compassion and Choices Action Network said. The legislation will take effect by January 1st, 2026 - or earlier, pending the implementation of regulations. Under the act, several medical professionals would have to agree that a person's prognosis is terminal with six months or less to live, the adult must be able to make clear decisions, and the person would need to be able to self-administer the medication. Appleton also had a message for people who think this may encourage more people to take their lives: "to assure that not one more person will dies as a result of this legislation, but far fewer will suffer."

[United Kingdom] Assisted dying bill: further protections for nurses proposed Nursing Times, London, UK; by Edd Church, source Roger Harris, House of Commons; 5/7/25 No nurse who declines to aid in assisted dying procedures will be at risk of “any detriment” to their careers under a new amendment to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, the MP behind the draft legislation has claimed. Kim Leadbeater, MP for Spen Valley, announced earlier this week that she would be proposing to extend the “opt-out” provisions in her bill for healthcare workers who work in settings where assisted dying may take place. Ms. Leadbeater said, in a statement released this week, that she understood that “not all people working in and around” healthcare would want to participate in the provision of assisted dying. "Nobody will be at risk of any detriment to their careers if, for any reason at all, they chose not to take part." The bill currently already states that healthcare professionals can conscientiously object to taking part and that employers “must not” subject employees to detriment for exercising this right.

[France] Deputies approve bill creating Right to Assisted Dying Time.News; 5/3/25 Is the right to die a fundamental human right, or a risky step towards devaluing life? France is grappling with this profound question as a new bill edges closer to legalizing aid in dying. the implications could ripple far beyond French borders, influencing the debate in the United States and around the world. The bill, initially presented by President Emmanuel Macron in March 2024, faced delays due to the dissolution of the National Assembly. Now,revived and championed by Prime Minister François Bayrou,the executive text has been divided into two separate legal proposals. One focuses on enhancing palliative care, while the other addresses aid in dying.

Assembly passes bill to allow medically assisted death for terminally ill New Yorkers NNY360, Watertown Daily Times and Northern New York Newspapers, Watertown, NY; by Alex Gault; 4/2925 The New York state legislature is poised to pass a bill that would allow terminally ill people to seek a medication to end their lives, a process called medical aid in dying. On Tuesday, the Assembly voted for the first time to advance a bill, carried by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Westchester, that would allow a terminally ill patient to ask for a prescription for a lethal medication, to be taken at home on their own terms. 

Medical aid in dying in the state of Colorado: Perspectives, data, and lessons learned in the first years of a uniquely centralized programJournal of Palliative Medicine; Melanie Mandell, Katie Sue Van Valkenburg, Skye O’Neil, Genie E. Roosevelt, Kerri Mason; 4/25 In 2016, Colorado voters approved Proposition 106, “Access to Medical Aid in Dying,” which amended Colorado statutes to include the Colorado End-of-life Options Act. In 2018, Denver Health and Hospital Authority, an urban, county safety-net hospital established a program to provide comprehensive medical aid in dying care via a centralized clinic with a dedicated team including a medical director, social worker, and a network of volunteer consultants. As the program has developed and matured, it has grown exponentially. This is due to its ease of accessibility, statewide educational efforts, and the relatively low cost and need-based, free services it provides. In six and a half years, our centralized program assisted over 650 Colorado patients in their quest for accessing medical aid in dying care, providing a wide continuum of services from initial intake and counseling, visits, and financial aid to specific grief counseling for loved ones. We believe our centralized system may function as a model for other hospitals considering the need to improve aid in dying access and care.

Federal court strikes down minimum staffing rule: The details you might not know behind the decisionMcKnights Long-Term Care News; by Neville M. Bilimoria; 4/21/25On April 7, 2025, the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas struck down the federal minimum staffing Final Rule issued by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This was incredibly good news for nursing homes across the country for a variety of reasons ... The opinion from District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk outlined the many laws and regulations America’s nursing homes are subject to in the healthcare arena, but it also recounted some deep history behind minimum staffing efforts that were previously unsuccessful, both by HHS and Congress.  ...

‘Medical aid in dying’ bill passes Nevada Assembly despite Lombardo veto threat Las Vegas Review-Journal; by McKenna Ross; 4/17/25 An effort to legalize medical aid in dying for terminally ill people has passed a crucial vote Thursday despite Gov. Joe Lombardo’s threat to veto the measure. Assembly Bill 346 would create a legal framework for competent and willing terminally ill patients to self-administer life-ending medicines. It passed in the Assembly on Thursday, 23-19.

A terminally ill man decided to end his life. This is how he spent his last day alivePeople; By Vanessa Etienne; 4/8/25A California man offered a look at his final day of life as he made the decision to die rather than live with a terminal illness. Wayne Hawkins, an 80-year-old from San Diego, was diagnosed with terminal heart failure. He’s also suffered from a slew of other health issues including prostate cancer, liver failure and sepsis. "Some days the pain is almost more than I can handle," he told BBC in an interview published April 3. Hawkins told the outlet that he watched two relatives die "miserable" and "heinous" deaths from heart failure, and knew he didn’t want to die that way. "I hate hospitals, they are miserable. I will die in the street first," he said.Publisher's note: Two considerations: 1) Are there opportunities for hospice in similar situations? 2) This story ran in People magazine...

[UK] Why we need to consider frailty in the assisted dying debateAge and Aging; Sarah A Hopkins, Annabel Price, Simon N Etkind; 2/25Assisted dying/assisted suicide (AD/AS) is legal or decriminalised in several countries and Bills to legalise it are currently being considered by the UK and Scottish Parliaments. Older adults living with frailty make up an increasing proportion of those who die, yet the possible implications of AD/AS for these individuals are relatively unexplored. Frailty complicates AD/AS in relation to eligibility because of ambiguity over whether frailty constitutes a terminal illness, challenges in accurately predicting prognosis, and difficulty determining reversibility of suffering. Frailty also blurs the distinction between terminal illness and disability, in contrast to the clear-cut language of current proposed legislation where those with a terminal illness are eligible, but those with disability are not. Further consideration is needed regarding eligibility, safeguards in the context of relational autonomy and for those who already feel a burden, and how to mitigate risks of further entrenching ableist and ageist attitudes.

[UK] RCGP shifts to position of neither supporting nor opposing assisted dying RCGP - Royal College of General Pracitioners, London, UK; Press Release; 3/14/25 The Royal College of General Practitioners' Council has voted to move to a position of neither supporting nor opposing assisted dying being legal. The RCGP UK governing Council - elected representatives of the wider College membership – today voted to determine what the College’s stance should be on whether or not assisted dying should be legal:

Daughter indicted for killing mother with morphine in Evans The Augusta Press, Augusta, GA; by Greg Rickabaugh; 2/25/25The daughter of a woman who died in an Evans assisted living home from a fatal dose of morphine has been indicted for malice murder. Rachel Elaine Waters, 41, is expected to surrender this week on murder charges in the death of 74-year-old Marsha Sprayberry Foster, according to Columbia County authorities.An indictment says that Waters administered a lethal dose of morphine on July 12, 2023, while her mother was at the Marshall Pines assisted living on North Belair Road. The cause of death was determined in an autopsy, showing that excessive use of the unprescribed morphine was the reason for her death. Foster had Alzheimer’s disease, and the morphine was reportedly left behind by hospice workers and used by the daughter without authorization.