Delaware governor vetoes physician-assisted suicide bill

Baltimore, Md., Sep 20, 2024 / 18:09 pm

The governor of Delaware, John Carney, used his executive power on Friday to veto a bill that would have legalized euthanasia in the First State.

Carney, the outgoing Democratic governor, rejected House Bill 140 a week after it made it to his desk. The proposed law, commonly referred to as a physician-assisted suicide law, would have allowed terminally-ill people with less than six months to live to request and take medication to end their lives.

The bill passed both houses of the Delaware State Assembly in the spring. The state House of Representatives approved the proposed law by a 21 to 16 vote on April 18. The state Senate passed the legislation by the narrowest of margins — 11 to 10. 

Carney released a statement on Friday after he issued his veto, noting that he “consistently opposed a state law that would allow physician-assisted suicide. ... I am fundamentally and morally opposed to ... enabling someone, even under tragic and painful circumstances, to take their own life.”

“I still don’t believe a firm consensus has been reached on what is a very difficult issue — in Delaware or nationally,” he added.

The governor — who had recently secured the Democratic Party’s nomination to become the next mayor of Delaware’s largest city, Wilmington — cited the official position of the American Medical Association that laws like the one just rejected in Delaware are “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.”

Bishop William E. Koenig of the Diocese of Wilmington, which covers the entire state of Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland, praised the governor’s move in a statement.

“I want to express my sincere appreciation to Gov. Carney for vetoing H.B. 140,” he said “... I also want to thank the thousands of Catholics and others of goodwill who helped with their prayers and efforts to protect the elderly, ill, and disabled of our community.”

The bishop also underlined that “all human life is created in the image and likeness of God and must be protected, especially the most vulnerable.”

During a July 2024 panel discussion, Matt Vallière of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund spotlighted that if Delaware and Massachusetts rejected their proposed laws legalizing assisted suicide, it would be “three years in a row with no new legal states [permitting physician-assisted suicide].” 

Massachusetts’ bill failed to clear the legislative session in 2024, which ended at the end of July. 

Evangeline Bartz of Americans United for Life, who also took part in the panel, noted there have been 11 other states that rejected euthanasia: Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. 

Ten states — California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington — and the District of Columbia have “medical aid in dying” (MAID) laws that allow assisted suicide. 

Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s condemnation of euthanasia in a message to an interfaith symposium on palliative care earlier in 2024: “I would point out that authentic palliative care is radically different from euthanasia, which is never a source of hope or genuine concern for the sick and dying.”