A coalition of Delaware-based and national disability and patient advocacy organizations have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Delaware’s End of Life Options Act, which establishes assisted suicide in the state. The law violates core constitutional protections and federal civil rights statutes, including the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the U.S. Constitution, the Due Process of the Delaware State Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Affordable Care Act.
Ernest Galvan and Michael Bien of Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld are co-counsel for plaintiffs in the Delaware action.
“This new assisted suicide law in Delaware will create a separate and unequal system in which people with disabilities are offered death instead of support,” said Matt Vallière, president/executive director of the plaintiff organization Institute for Patients’ Rights. “Our lawsuit is asking the courts to stop this practice so Delaware patients with disabilities won’t be funneled through bias, barriers to care and inequal access to a death-too-soon.”
The plaintiffs — led by a Delaware citizen Sean Curran, the Freedom Center for Independent Living, Inc in Middletown, the Delaware chapter of ADAPT and joined by the National Council on Independent Living, United Spinal Association, Not Dead Yet, and the Institute for Patients’ Rights — are asking the U.S. District Court to declare the law unconstitutional and to block its enforcement permanently. The suit argues that Delaware’s assisted suicide statute will single out people with disabilities and other vulnerable individuals, placing them at risk of premature death rather than ensuring access to care, support and suicide prevention services.
“The act devalues people like me,” said Curran, a Delaware resident who suffered a severe spinal cord injury 36 years ago and is quadriplegic. “I have led a full life despite my disability. The act tells people like me that they should qualify for suicide help, not suicide prevention. I find such discrimination utterly repugnant.”
The suit highlights alarming consequences of the law’s implementation, including its application to individuals with non-terminal conditions like anorexia, spinal cord injuries, and other disabilities. The legislation will go into effect Jan. 1 or when regulations are finalized – which makes it highly likely that the law will be implemented before any regulations are put into place. This clear lack of guardrails and safeguards increases the stakes for vulnerable patients already facing subjective criteria.
Daniese McMullin-Powell, a representative of one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Delaware ADAPT, is a polio survivor and has used a wheelchair for most of her life.
“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 McMullin-Powell. “With looming Medicaid cuts and high insurance premiums, as well as Medicare which does not provide community or community-based 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.”
Advocates argue that the law sets a dangerous precedent by allowing physicians to make life-or-death judgments in cases where outcomes are uncertain. For individuals with anorexia and similar diagnoses, treatment success cannot be predicted, and labeling these patients as “terminal,” hopeless, and beyond help denies them the opportunity for healing.
Ted Kittila of Halloran Farkas + Kittila LLP, Plaintiffs’ counsel, noted, “For too long, assisted suicide has been pitched as an act of mercy. For those in the disability community, it represents a real threat of continued discrimination. This lawsuit seeks to stop Delaware’s ill-considered law which will cause real harm to people who need real help.”
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