Danielle Pimentel, J.D.

Policy Counsel

Americans United for Life  | 03 August 2026

Introduction

For over 20 years, a calculated and dangerous campaign for the normalization of suicide has been gaining traction, right under the noses of the American public. In the last two years, three additional states legalized assisted suicide—Delaware, Illinois, and New York—totaling 14 jurisdictions that allow death-on-demand. Assisted suicide is one of the deadliest state-sanctioned threats to human life, particularly for people with disabilities, the elderly, and people with serious illnesses. These populations are already vulnerable to suicidal ideation,[i] especially as the rates of suicide increase.

 

We are experiencing a suicide epidemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that millions of people attempt suicide every year, and close to 50,000 people died by suicide in 2024 alone.[ii] Studies show that, even for children and adolescents, the rates of suicide have increased astronomically.[iii] And yet, suicide activists continue to advocate for vulnerable populations’ “right to die,” communicating the message that a person with a disability, with a serious illness, or who is elderly, has less value and worth to society. Reading the writing on the wall, bioethicists and researchers have raised serious concerns about the rising tensions between suicide normalization and suicide prevention.

 

How Does Assisted Suicide Impact Suicide Prevention?

While the United States has a strong public policy of suicide prevention,[iv] assisted suicide undercuts these efforts, exacerbating suicide rates. For example, widespread calls to normalize assisted suicide has led to a “suicide contagion,” or the Werther Effect.[v] The Werther Effect “is the mimicry of suicide after a highly publicized suicide.”[vi] Empirical evidence highlights how media coverage of suicide inspires others to commit suicide as well.[vii] As a result, suicide prevention experts have criticized assisted suicide advertising campaigns.[viii]

 

Notably, studies have found the rates of non-assisted suicide increase when a state legalizes assisted suicide. To name a few examples, one U.S. study found that, after accounting for demographic, socioeconomic, and other state-specific factors, assisted suicide is associated with a 6.3% increase in overall suicide rates (both assisted and “unassisted”).[ix] For individuals older than 65, the study found a 14.5% increase in overall suicide rates.[x] Another recent study found “strong evidence that legalization of assisted suicide is associated with a significant increase in total suicides.”[xi] The researchers also found evidence that the legalization of assisted suicide is associated with an increase in unassisted suicide, particularly for individuals between the ages of 35-64 and for women.[xii] Ultimately, the study concluded that it “did not find any support either for the suggestion that legalizing assisted suicide might reduce total suicides or that it will reduce unassisted suicides.”[xiii] Similarly, a recent study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry examined assisted suicide scholarship from the United States and other countries, finding “[t]his systematic review suggests that there is no association between EAS [euthanasia or assisted suicide] and reduced suicide rates in the countries where it is legislated for. This has consequences for the overall suicide prevention efforts in these and other countries, and may have particular implications for older women.”[xiv]

 

The findings of these studies are not surprising. As bioethicist Wesley J. Smith aptly notes, assisted suicide creates “a two-tiered system for measuring the worth of human life.”[xv] Accordingly,

 

The young and vital who become suicidal would receive suicide prevention—and the concomitant message that their lives are worth living. At the same time, the suicides of the debilitated, sick, and disabled, and people with extended mental anguish—the “hopelessly ill”—would be shrugged off as merely a matter of choice. Such a value system would not only reflect a distorted value about the worth of human life but also send a lethal message to the weak and infirm that their lives are not worth living.[xvi]

 

The lethal message spread by assisted suicide policies has real-world consequences. Policies that further discriminatory narratives and promote suicide as a “solution” for vulnerable patients will only exacerbate a suicide epidemic.

 

The irreconcilable conflict between suicide normalization and suicide prevention cannot be ignored and will only grow more potent as assisted suicide policies become more prevalent in the United States and overseas. Canada is a prime example of this. This June, “after more than four decades of national leadership in suicide prevention and life promotion,” the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention (CASP) closed, citing “significant and sustained funding challenges.”[xvii] CASP noted that it “played a critical role as both a prominent advocate and unifying voice for a national suicide prevention strategy,” stating that its closure “makes the need for sustained national leadership in suicide prevention more urgent – not less.”[xviii] Unsurprisingly, CASP’s closure comes only ten years after the country legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia. Canada has rapidly slackened the requirements in its death-on-demand policies, expanding suicide assistance to patients who do not have terminal illnesses, including patients with mental illnesses. While there may be a variety of reasons as to why CASP closed its doors, it is incumbent on Canadians to ask whether the rise and prevalence of assisted suicide and euthanasia may have played a role.

 

Despite the United States continuing to pour money into its suicide prevention efforts, more people are dying by suicide every year, and the public narrative around assisted suicide is slowly shifting toward allowance. Ultimately, the legalization of assisted suicide undermines our nation’s suicide prevention policies and will continue to do so as our culture embraces death-on-demand policies. Consequently, as states continue to sanction assisted suicide, more individuals will be encouraged to take their own lives through assisted or unassisted means.

 

How Does the Pro-Life Movement Respond?

Advocating for policies that ensure authentic healthcare options for end-of-life patients and people with disabilities is crucial. Policies that require comprehensive pain-management training for medical professionals, improve current palliative care and hospice treatment options, and foster innovation for end-of-life care help ensure vulnerable patients are given the compassionate care and support they deserve. This kind of life-affirming legislation may even lead to the “Papageno Effect,”— converse to the Werther effect—whereby media attention surrounding people with suicidal ideation who choose not to commit suicide inspires others to choose life.[xix]

 

In the end, we want policies that ensure medical professionals treat vulnerable patients with the same human dignity that is afforded to any other patient. We also want policies that ensure access to quality healthcare options that aim to improve end-of-life patients’ quality of life and prognosis. State-level passage of assisted suicide creates a dangerous precedent that systematically increases overall suicide rates. The normalization of suicide must stop so that suicide prevention can truly begin.

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[i] Margda Waern, et al., Burden of Illness and Suicide in Elderly People: Case-Control Study, 324 BMJ 1, 1-4 (June 8, 2022); Nicole M. Marlow, et al., Association Between Disability and Suicide-Related Outcomes Among U.S. Adults, 61 Am. J. Preventive Med. P852, P852-P862 (Dec. 2021).

[ii] Suicide Data and Statistics, Ctrs. For Disease Control & Prevention (May 20, 2026), https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/data/index.html.

[iii] Victor Ajluni & Daniel Amarasinghe, Youth Suicide Crisis: Identifying At-Risk Individuals and Prevention Strategies, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry & Mental Health 1, 1-4 (2024).

[iv] See, e.g., Suicide Prevention, Ctrs. For Disease Control & Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/index.html (last visited July 19, 2026).

[v] See Vivien Kogler & Alexander Noyon, The Werther Effect—About the Handling of Suicide in the Media, Open Access Gov’t (May 17, 2018), https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/the-werther-effect/42915/.  

[vi] Id.

[vii] See id.; see also S. Stack, Media Coverage as a Risk Factor in Suicide, 57 J. Epidemiol. Community Health 238 (2003); E. Etzersdorfer, et al., A Dose-Response Relationship Between Imitational Suicides and Newspaper Distribution, 8 Arch. Suicide Rsch. 137 (2004).

[viii] See Nancy Valko, A Tale of Two Suicides: Brittany Maynard and My Daughter, Celebrate Life, Jan-Feb 2015, available at https://www.clmagazine.org/topic/end-of-life/a-tale-of-two-suicides-brittany-maynard-and-my-daughter/ (suicide prevention experts criticizing a billboard stating, “My Life My Death My Choice,” which provided a website address, as “irresponsible and downright dangerous; it is the equivalent of handing a gun to someone who is suicidal”).

[ix] See David Albert Jones & David Paton, How Does Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide Affect Rates of Suicide, 108 S. Med. J. 10 599, 599-600 (2015), available at https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6df3/55333ceecc41b361da6dc996d90a17b96e9c.pdf.

[x] Id. at 603.

[xi] Sourafel Girma & David Paton, Is Assisted Suicide a Substitute for Unassisted Suicide?, 145 European Economic Rev. 1, 1 (June 2022).

[xii] Id. at 10.

[xiii] Id. at 14.

[xiv] Anne M. Doherty, et al., Investigating the Relationship Between Euthanasia and/or Assisted Suicide and Rates of Non-Assisted Suicide: Systematic Review, 8 British J. Psych 1, 7 (June 3, 2022).

[xv] Wesley J. Smith, Culture of Death: the age of “Do harm” Medicine 106, 117 (2d ed. 2016).

[xvi] Id.

[xvii] Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention Announces Planned Closure After More Than Four Decades of National Leadership, CASP (Apr. 15, 2026), https://sprevention.wixsite.com/casp.

[xviii] Id.

[xix] See The Papageno Effect, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, https://988lifeline.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Lifeline-Papageno-Effect.pdf (last visited July 7, 2026).

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