Missouri is joining the growing list of states across the country considering allowing doctors to assist in their patients’ suicide with legislation that the bill’s sponsor says will allow terminally ill patients to end their suffering on their own terms.

Advocates for “death with dignity” measures say it helps prevent suffering and that terminally ill, capable patients and their doctors should have the “option for death.” Opponents say such measures target the sufferers rather than the suffering itself and say they fear that even legalizing it will open the door to expansion in the future. 

Gallup polling indicates that Americans have “consistently favored doctor-assisted suicide since Gallup first asked about it in 1996.” The most recent 2023 numbers from Gallup’s “moral issues” questionnaire show that regardless of their views on whether the practice should be legal or not, 53 percent of Americans think doctor-assisted suicide is “morally acceptable,” while 44 percent think it is “morally wrong.”

Missouri’s bill was pre-filed this week by a Democratic state Representative, Ian Mackey, who told the Sun in an interview that the issue was brought to his attention through a physician in his region, Dr. Steven Teitelbaum, whose wife, Marilyn, was diagnosed with ALS last year. 

“It was — as ALS typically is — a really swift-moving and debilitating disease, an extremely painful disease, and one that ultimately took her life, and we are not a state that permits folks to plan for the end of their life the way other states do,” Mr. Mackey told the Sun. Colorado, though, does, but has a residency requirement for doctor-assisted death. “So they actually moved to Colorado to help end Marilyn’s life in a way that was as pain-free as possible, and as peaceful as possible.”

As lawmakers prepare to take up the legislation, which is named after Teitelbaum, Mr. Mackey said, “we’ll do everything we can to try to get it passed,” and that he’s been hearing from constituents supporting it. He said the language around the bill is important. “There’s a reason we call it death with dignity, there’s a reason we call it end of life care,” Mr. Mackey said. 

“Marilyn Teitelbaum did not commit suicide, her doctors did not help her commit suicide. She was killed by ALS,” he said. “She just happened to be in a position and have resources where she could put herself in a position to battle ALS in a way that caused her less pain than it otherwise would have inflicted on her.” 

Before her death, Teitelbaum was an attorney and also served as General Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. The ACLU of Missouri “is encouraged by the prefiling of the Death with Dignity Act,” the organization’s representative, Tom Bastian, told the Sun, adding that it looks forward to reviewing the bill in-full.  

“Medical decisions are private matters that are best left to doctors and patients, free from government interference. Every person should be able to die with the same expectation of dignity that we have as we live,” he said.

When asked whether this could lead to a “slippery slope” or expansions, Mr. Mackey said it’s important to think about the practice in “narrow contexts.” 

“There’s no role for the government in a decision like Marilyn had to go through, that’s up to her and her family and her doctors as she battles a debilitating and painful disease,” he said.

Teitelbaum’s widower, Dr. Teitelbaum, told local outlet KY3 that because the practice is illegal in Missouri, his wife established residency in Colorado to be eligible for legal assisted suicide, and he rented two apartments at Denver so the entire family could be present. 

“She asked that my nephew, who plays the guitar, play Amazing Grace, and she drank the fluid that ends her life, and it just was peaceful and gracious, and she left the family on its feet,” he said. In places that ban medical aid in dying, he said, “it negatively impacts the memories that one has of that person that they love.”

Though Missouri’s bill specifies that an adult will not qualify for assisted suicide “solely because of age or disability,” the proposal comes as there have been growing concerns out of Canada that safeguards on assisted suicide can be eliminated, expanding the practice to a dangerous extent. 

Medical aid in dying is now the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada, as the Sun has reported, and reports are emerging of patients with treatable illnesses who are being told to pursue assisted suicide by doctors and patients who say the country’s backlogged healthcare system leaves them in pain for long periods of time, giving them no other choice.

Canadian patients with mental illnesses will be eligible for medically assisted death beginning in March 2024, leading to concerns that Canada’s assisted death toll will keep skyrocketing as individuals with drug addiction, alcoholism, and eating disorders become eligible. 

Reports emerged this week of a 55-year-old Canadian woman, Tracey Thompson, who has long Covid and applied for assisted suicide, telling Dailymail.com that her brain fog was too severe to enjoy cooking, eating, reading, or watching movies. 

“My quality of life with this illness is almost nonexistent, it’s not a good life,” she said. “I don’t do anything. It is painfully boring. It’s profoundly isolating.”