A federal district court judge upheld Delaware’s physician-assisted suicide law on Tuesday after a legal challenge from a patient rights advocacy group that argued the law discriminates against people with disabilities.
U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Williams, a Biden appointee, dismissed a lawsuit filed earlier in December by the Institute for Patients’ Rights and several other disability advocacy organizations in an attempt to thwart the implementation of Delaware’s physician-assisted suicide law.
The law, signed by Gov. Matt Meyer (D-DE) in May, will take effect as of Jan. 1, allowing physicians and advanced practice nurses to assist patients in suicide if two or more physicians agree that the patient has less than six months to live. The patient needs to be of sound mind before consenting to assisted suicide.
Supporters of physician-assisted suicide argue that it provides end-of-life options for terminally ill patients. Slim majorities of medical professionals support assisted suicide in various national polls and say they would be willing to assist a patient through the process, also known as “Medical Aid in Dying.”
Matt Vallière, president of the Institute for Patients’ Rights and one of the plaintiffs in the case against Delaware, told the Washington Examiner that a healthcare system that allows for physician-assisted suicide is effectively “unequal suicide prevention based upon the subjective value judgments that people place on the lives of some people currently with XYZ disabilities.”
Most of the legal challenges against the 14 states that have legalized assisted suicide involve the argument that it creates two classes of patients based on disability status, violating the equal protection clause of the Constitution as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.
According to Vallière, suicidal patients without a terminal condition are normally treated with life-saving measures to treat depression and other mental health conditions. Under physician-assisted suicide laws, Vallière said healthcare professionals “can, with impunity, help you to kill yourself” if they believe you have less than six months to live.
Vallière said assisted suicide becomes a slippery slope in rationing healthcare resources.
“It’s going to expand as it has in every other jurisdiction where they’ve legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia to more and more subsets of people with disabilities, making it faster and easier and cheaper, while making it very difficult to get true healthcare and other community and home-based services,” Vallière said.
The legal fight against state physician-assisted suicide laws has ramped up in recent years and will likely reach new heights in 2026.
Vallière’s group, along with several other patient advocacy groups, sued California in 2023 over its End of Life Option Act, making the same argument: Physician-assisted suicide laws establish a two-tiered system of suicide prevention.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is waiting to issue a ruling on the appeal for the case pending another unrelated matter that could affect relevant precedent. Vallière said he is hopeful a decision will be reached by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
The Institute for Patients’ Rights and other allied groups in June filed a similar lawsuit against Colorado’s physician-assisted suicide law, which was enacted in 2015. The 10th Circuit Court would have appellate jurisdiction in that case should it advance to the appeals stage.
The ideal scenario for Vallière would be to have at least two conflicting rulings from federal appeals courts, which would then create the opportunity for Supreme Court review.
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Vallière said the plaintiffs against Delaware will be filing an immediate petition with the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The judge’s decision effectively accelerates the process for us to achieve a final decision and real justice at the appellate level, where we trust that equal human dignity will prevail and the Delaware assisted suicide law will be permanently overturned,” Vallière said.
