Hastening Your Death Without a Doctor

The primary focus on legislative and judicial efforts in the United States is on medical means of hastening death. But many contend that even the expanded end-of-life liberty in MAID states (CA, CO, DC, HI, ME, MT, NC, NJ, OR, VT, WA) is not enough.

They argue that getting access to and approval from a clinician is a barrier. Consequently, these advocates are focusing on improving access to non-medical means of hastening death.

However, "assisting" people to hasten their deaths through non-medical means entails more legal risk. It is not protected with a statutory safe harbor like MAID. Consequently, these groups must be careful to stick to pure speech. And not even that is always a safe approach.