Assisted Suicide pills - NOT a painless death!
Legalized Assisted Suicide (HB140) was pushed back in DE for 10 years, until it narrowly passed the DE Legislature and became law in January of 2026.
It is now legal in Delaware for doctors to prescribe death pills to patients.
Key Testimony of Dr. Neil Kaye,MD, DLFAPA
“Some people took 30 hours to die.”
Talking Points
1. Assisted suicide pills are experimental and do NOT guarantee a painless death.
- Dr. Neil Kaye testified in previous legislative committees that 33% who took the death pills took 30 hours to die.
- Dr. Neil Kaye also testified that the concoction of drugs used in assisted suicide changes frequently.
- Research from death penalty executions show that the drugs used to kill can cause the lungs to fill with fluid, basically causing people to drown to death.
Assisted suicide doesn’t even accomplish its stated goal based on data from the states where it is legal.
2. Suicide is not healthcare or palliative care! It is not the prescription for pain relief.
- Palliative care is meant to manage pain. Assisted suicide gives Delaware’s health care system the shortcut of ending patient’s lives.
- Pain is not the main reason that patients choose assisted suicide. Oregon data from 2023 cited “loss of autonomy and dignity” and “fear of burdening loved ones” as the main reasons for assisted suicide.
Legalizing assisted suicide says that some lives are not valuable.
3. Assisted suicide creates a culture where there is more incentive to kill than to care.
- The American Medical Association says, “Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks. Instead of participating in assisted suicide, physicians must aggressively respond to the needs of patients at the end of life.”
This will destroy the integrity of the medical system that is designed to save life rather than end it.
HB 140 Timeline
Read the bill and see the bill sponsors here.
Representative Eric Morrison introduced House Bill 140, in January of 2025.
House Committee Hearing, 1/29/25 – Listen Here, start at 11:42:42
HB 140 was released from the House Health and Human Development Committee on Wednesday, January 29th and sent to the House Floor.
House Floor Session, 3/18/25 – Listen Here, start at 5:18
HB 140 passed the floor and was sent to the Senate Executive Committee.
Senate Committee Hearing, 4/9/25 – Listen Here
HB 140 was released from the Senate Executive Committee on Wednesday, April 9th and sent to the Senate Floor.
Senate Floor Session, 4/17/25 – Listen Here, start at 3:04
HB 140 was brought to the Senate floor and eventually passed 11-8. Governor Meyer signed HB 140 into law on May 20th; it is set to be enacted Jan. 1, 2026.
History:
Representative Paul Baumbach introduced HB 140 on May of 2023.
House Committee Hearing, 5/16/23 – Listen Here, start at 11:03
HB 140 was released from the House Health and Human Development Committee by 8 votes, and was sent to the House Floor.
House Floor Session, 4/18/24 – Listen Here, start at 4:10
HB 140 passed the House by 21 votes and was sent to the Senate Executive Committee.
Senate Executive Committee Hearing 6/12/24 – Listen Here
HB 140 was released from the Senate Committee by 5 votes and was sent to the Senate floor.
Senate Floor Session, 6/20/24 – Listen Here, start at 2:48:37
HB 140 did not pass the first time, but was brought back up for a vote on June 27th, and it passed 11-10.
Senate Floor Session, 6/25/24 – Listen here, start at 3:33:26
Governor Carney vetoed HB 140 on September 20th, 2024.
HB140 invites FRAUD and puts the most vulnerable at risk for abuse when they need protection the most.
- No independent witness is required when the patient takes the suicide pills. There is no way to prove that the person took the pills on their own.
- The “safeguards” in HB 140 have been challenged in court in other states and removed.
Fraud cannot be legislated away.
HB 140 will allow lethal doses to be offered to those with “terminal” illnesses – which includes common and easily treatable diseases, like diabetes.
- Even in the case of more drastic conditions, terminal diagnoses are often wrong; individuals can live much longer than their original prognosis predicts.
- According to Dr. Kaye’s testimony at the House committee hearing for HB 140, physicians have been wrong about terminal diagnoses over 66% of the time.
HB 140 allows for the circulation of lethal drugs.
- HB 140 allows the lethal drugs to be distributed by mail. What happens if the lethal pills are lost in the mail, fall into the wrong hands, or improperly disposed? The only person who could be charged with improper disposal of the unused drugs would be dead!
There is no way to track the disposal of unused lethal drugs.
Learn More
Listen to these testimonies coordinated by the DFPC team. These are from the committee hearings when legalized assisted suicide was debated in Delaware’s legislature in previous years.
Dr. Neil Kaye shared compelling statistics in his committee testimonies. For example, 33% of people who took doctor-prescribed suicide drugs in the US didn’t die as they expected – it took over 30 hours, and for many of them it included vomiting and complications – nothing about it was peaceful or easy as supporters try to convey.
Assisted suicide says that life is not inherently valuable. It says killing is compassionate and gives doctors the final say on which lives are worth living – which is why no disability groups support HB 140.
Right now, HB 140 says you have the “choice” to take your life when it is no longer worth living.
The sanitized view of suicide that HB 140 presents will change the ethos – the culture – of medical care in Delaware. It easily leads to people feeling pressured to end their life.
Once a governing body has the authority to decide if and when your life is not worth living, Pandora’s box of death is opened. It just keeps pushing the boundaries – exactly what we see happening in other countries.
Click the links below to see what’s happening in Canada, as well as additional research.
Human life has inherent dignity and value because we are created in God’s Image. Period. This doesn’t change because a doctor or legislator says it does.
HB 140 assumes that doctors can make an accurate terminal diagnosis. In reality, doctors have been wrong in over 66% of cases!
Suicide is not compassion.
The hearing exposed a misunderstanding regarding palliative care and assisted suicide. Palliative care is intended to alleviate pain and make the patient comfortable. The intent is not to kill, but to fulfill the medical duty to protect life.
Assisted suicide is not simply alleviating pain, it is causing certain death. This is not compassion, it’s assisting in suicide.
Click here to read: The answer to suffering is not suicide – it is the gospel!