Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia

Protecting Life, Dignity, and Trust in Medicine

Tennessee Right to Life works to protect the right to life in every age, stage, and condition. For this reason, we are deeply concerned about the growing cultural and legal acceptance of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Directly killing patients (euthanasia) or assisting in their suicide (physician-assisted suicide) is an affront to human dignity, regardless of a person’s diagnosis, disability, or perceived “quality of life.”

Tennessee’s Strong Stand for Life

Tennessee Right to Life helped codify into state law a ban on assisted suicide in 1993, making it a Class D felony. Since then, so-called “Death with Dignity” bills have been introduced repeatedly and soundly defeated.

However, national pro-assisted-suicide organizations continue to push these laws state by state, putting vulnerable citizens at risk. As of January 2026, 13 states and Washington, D.C., allow some form of assisted suicide.

Tennesseans must remain vigilant.

What Is Euthanasia?

Euthanasia is the direct killing of a person, usually by administering a lethal injection.

Fortunately, euthanasia is currently illegal in Tennessee and throughout the United States.

Why Euthanasia Is Dangerous

• It devalues human life
• It becomes a tool for health-care cost containment
• It destroys trust in physicians, who are meant to heal—not kill
• It leads to a documented “slippery slope”, expanding from the terminally ill to broader populations, including those who did not consent

Is Physician-Assisted Suicide Different from Euthanasia?

Technically, yes, but the distinction is thin.

• Physician-assisted suicide: a doctor provides lethal drugs; the patient administers them
• Euthanasia: the physician directly administers the lethal action

In both cases:

• A physician enables death
• The act is legitimized by medical authority
• The ethical outcome is the same: intentional ending of a human life

Practices That Must Be Distinguished

Not all end-of-life decisions are euthanasia or assisted suicide. Important distinctions include:

Terminal Sedation

Sedating a terminally ill patient to relieve intractable suffering, while allowing death to occur from natural causes.

Withholding or Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatment

When a competent patient refuses extraordinary medical treatment, this choice is broadly recognized as legitimate in law and ethics.

Pain Medication That May Hasten Death

Administering medication to relieve suffering, even if death may be unintentionally hastened, is ethically permissible when the intent is pain relief, not death.

What Is Assisted Suicide?

Assisted suicide occurs when one person provides the means or instructions for another person to commit suicide.

Unlike refusing treatment, assisted suicide introduces death as a medical “solution.”

Where Is Physician-Assisted Suicide Legal?

As of January 2026, physician-assisted suicide is legal in:

• California (2016)
• Colorado (2016)
• Delaware (Jan. 2026)
• District of Columbia (2017)
• Hawaii (2019)
• Illinois (effective Sept. 2026)
• Maine (2019)
• Montana (court-authorized, 2009)
• New Jersey (2019)
• New Mexico (2021)
• Oregon (1994)
• Vermont (2013)
• Washington (2009)

Why Do Advocates Push Assisted Suicide?

Advocates rely on two main arguments:

Autonomy

While patients rightly have the ability to accept or refuse medical treatment, assisted-suicide proponents claim autonomy extends to choosing when, how, and why to die.

This reframes suicide as a medical right.

Elimination of Suffering

Advocates claim assisted suicide is about relieving pain. However:

Suicide is not pain relief

Modern palliative care can control most pain

In Oregon, pain is rarely cited as the main reason for assisted suicide

Instead, the most common reasons include:

• Fear of isolation
• Loss of autonomy
• Loss of dignity as defined by independence

The Real-World Consequences

Legal assisted suicide creates a world:

• Where insurance companies suggest death as a cheaper option
• Where people believe it is better to be dead than disabled
• Where elder abuse and coercion go undetected
• Where access to quality care is uneven
• Where the elderly, sick, and disabled are treated as burdens

Assisted Suicide as a Cost-Saving Measure

Alarmingly, insurance providers have already suggested assisted suicide instead of life-preserving care or hospice.

Should Someone Have the Right to End Their Own Life?

Suicide itself is not illegal in any state. But assisting suicide is a separate and far more dangerous issue.

Current law already allows:

• Refusal of unwanted medical treatment
• Access to pain control and palliative care

Assisted suicide is unnecessary and introduces irreversible risks to vulnerable populations.

A Public Health Contradiction

Society recognizes suicide prevention as a public-health priority. We invest in:

• Awareness campaigns
• Crisis intervention
• Mental-health resources

That same commitment should extend to people who are ill, disabled, or near the end of life.

People in despair need care, not lethal prescriptions.

Assisted Suicide Is Bad Law

• Prognoses are often wrong; patients may live years beyond estimates
• Psychiatric evaluation is rarely required (under 7% in Oregon)
• Depression and treatable mental illness go unaddressed
• Safeguards fail to detect coercion or abuse
• Heirs or caregivers may witness requests
• No witnesses are required when drugs are taken
• Reporting failures face no penalties

Oregon’s annual reports reveal how little oversight actually exists.

Additional Resources

• Patient’s Rights Council
• Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
• Second Thoughts
• Not Dead Yet

J.J. Hanson’s decision to live
https://youtu.be/8Fo2uNqKMR8

J.J. Hanson, three and a half years later
https://youtu.be/jQ6NSuetmWM

Documentary from a disabled woman opposing assisted-suicide laws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G_xF4dvS-U

Closing Statement

Ending suffering never requires ending the sufferer.

A just society responds to illness, disability, and dying with care, compassion, and protection, not abandonment disguised as choice.

Tennessee Right to Life remains committed to defending life until its natural end.