Urge Legislators to Support Real Care at the End of Life, NOT Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide is neither compassionate nor about real choice. Protecting the choices of a few by legalizing assisted suicide will endanger the healthcare choices of all.

Assisted suicide deliberately undermines human dignity by endangering the health of society’s most vulnerable, especially among those who underutilize hospice and palliative care. 

H.F. 1930/ S.F. 1813 is one of the most aggressive physician-assisted suicide bills in the country because it lacks meaningful safeguards for older adults and people with disabilities. It has no family notification or witness requirement and no way to predict an accurate prognosis.

When care is expensive and killing is cheap, which do we think will prevail? Urge Your State Legislator to oppose PAS.

Church Teaching

As Catholics, we are called to uphold human dignity and protect the most vulnerable among us. Legalization of assisted suicide works against this principle because death is hastened when it is thought that a person’s life no longer has meaning or purpose.

Pope Francis has spoken out against the legalization of assisted suicide saying in 2019 that, “we can and must reject the temptation, also induced by legislative changes, to use medicine to support a possible willingness of the patient to die, providing assistance for suicide or directly causing death by euthanasia.”

The Catechism also teaches us that assisted suicide and “whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying persons…is morally unacceptable” (CCC, 2277). Instead, we are called to create principled care models that support the medical needs of all people.

As Catholics, we are called to correct injustices as they persist in the social order and to use our position as faithful citizens to protect the poor and vulnerable. Protecting the choices of a few by legalizing assisted suicide would endanger the health care choices of all.

Learn More

Join the Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare, MCC's end-of-life care partner organization, in advocating for real care throughout life’s journey. Read Ethical MN Ethical Care's one-pager: Minnesota's Assisted Suicide Bill Has Serious Side Effects