CV NEWS FEED // A bill legalizing assisted suicide in Maryland “would be a crushing blow to the spirit of those who fight to live,” a disability community representative told state legislators Jan. 30. 

Chris Kelter, executive director of Accessible Resources for Independence, lobbied that day on behalf of the seven Maryland-based Centers for Independent Living, asking legislators to reject the End-of-Life Option Act, which could be introduced to the Legislature again this year. 

“This deadly option of healthcare is dangerous to the disability community,” Kelter said, according to a Feb. 3 press release from the nonprofit The Dignity Mandate. “Specific cuts in the proposed state budget and other fiscal uncertainties will reduce the provision of services to people with disabilities and cause undue harm. People with disabilities should be supported and live life to the fullest and should not have to consider ending their lives for any reason.”

Maryland Family Institute legal counsel Jonathan Alexandre, Patient Rights Action Fund Coalition Director Jessica Rodgers, and The Dignity Mandate co-founder Laura Jones presented various reasons why the measure should be opposed from the outset. 

“Many legislators see this issue as a matter of personal choice,” Jones said. “However, this bill extends beyond individual autonomy and requires the doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to be complicit in the act by providing the deadly drugs people use to overdose and die… We hope this bill will not be introduced in Maryland.”

According to the release, “there are rumors the bill will be introduced” once again, despite failing to pass in seven previous legislative sessions. 

The End-of-Life Option Act failed to pass the Maryland General Assembly last year by one vote, according to a September 2024 report from NPR. 

NPR’s report noted that even though Democrats, compared with Republicans, generally are more supportive of assisted suicide, there remain intra-party disagreements on the issue, and religious and cultural beliefs impact opinions on the issue as well.

“The Catholics are very much against the bill. Also, a lot of the African Americans don’t like it. It seems they feel it’s against their religion,” former Maryland State Sen. Ron Young, a Democrat, said, according to NPR.

NPR reports that Thaddeus Pope, a Minnesota-based clinical ethicist, added, “Traditionally, the Catholic Church has been one of the biggest opponents. And, they have spent a lot of money in many states opposing this. It’s sort of the same parties that are involved with abortion. It’s not just the Catholic Church, but it’s pro-life advocacy organizations.”

The Catholic bishops in Maryland were vocal in their opposition to the bill in 2024, stating that human life is sacred and that those nearing the end of their lives need compassion and increased access to palliative and hospice care. Further, they said, it is illogical for a government to simultaneously attempt to remedy the increasing mental health crisis in the state and support assisted suicide.