Medical Aid in Dying: Only for Patients with Disabilities

Every year, millions of patients with disabilities decide that living with their disability is intolerable. So, they hasten their death. Since this remains their own voluntary and informed choice for themselves, it does not violate federal non-discrimination laws like the ADA. 

The same analysis applies to the more than 30,000 U.S. patients with disabilities who obtained medical aid in dying (MAID). Because they also made (and must make) a voluntary and informed choice for themselves, MAID does not violate federal non-discrimination laws like the ADA. 

For this reason, two new lawsuits filed today challenging soon-to-be-effective MAID laws in Illinois and New York should be dismissed just like similar lawsuits were recently dismissed in California, Colorado, and Delaware.

To be sure, involuntary death hastening of patients with disabilities happens. And that might violate federal non-discrimination laws like the ADA. That problem was recently addressed in new DHHS regulations and by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 

But this is has nothing to do with MAID, because MAID is chosen only by patients themselves, for themselves. And MAID is administered only by patients themselves to themselves.