DELAWARE - Less than a month before the new End of Life Options Act takes effect in Delaware, a group of disability and patient advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the controversial law from being implemented.
Signed by Governor Matt Meyer in May of 2025, the End of Life Options Act would allow terminally ill adults to choose medical aid in dying after receiving a prognosis of six months or less to live. The bill was previously vetoed by former Governor John Carney. It is slated to take effect Jan. 1, 2026.
On Monday, Dec. 8, plaintiffs including Delaware’s chapter of American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, Institute for Patients’ Rights, United Spinal Association, and Not Dead Yet filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court challenging the law.
“Throughout the country, a state-endorsed narrative is rapidly spreading that threatens people with disabilities: namely, that people with life-threatening disabilities should be directed to suicide help and not suicide prevention,” the lawsuit reads. “This world view is being touted as a commonsense objective: people who have life-threatening disabilities should be able to readily obtain physician assisted suicide. At its core, this is discrimination plain and simple. With cuts in healthcare spending at the federal level, persons with life-threatening disabilities are now more vulnerable than ever.”
The plaintiffs go on to argue that medical providers are not required to help a patient obtain alternative services to medical aid in dying under the new law and that those with life-threatening disabilities would be denied protections guaranteed under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The End of Life Options Act includes language that requires a doctor or advanced practice registered nurse to provide specific disclosures including a presentation of options such as comfort care, hospice, palliative care, and pain control. Those believed to lack decision-making ability must also be evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist before choosing medical aid in dying, according to the law.
The lawsuit, which names Meyer and the Delaware Department of Health and Human Services as two of several defendants, requests a U.S. District Court judge to declare the law in violation of deferral disability law and the U.S. and Delaware Constitutions and permanently block it from going into effect in January.
“For patients with serious disabilities, this law will put us at risk of deadly discrimination from doctors and insurance companies in Delaware to make subjective and speculative judgments based on their perception of our quality of life,” said Daniese McMullin-Powell, a representing one of the plaintiffs. “With looming Medicaid cuts and high insurance premiums, as well as Medicare which does not provide community or institutional services, it already feels like our health care system is divided into providing for the haves and neglecting the have nots. We do not need exacerbate its brokenness by adding an element where some patients are steered toward suicide.”
WBOC reached out to Meyer’s office on Monday for comment on the lawsuit. This article will be updated to include the Governor’s response.
