Elizabeth Bruenig, staff writer at The Atlantic, shares Eileen's story and says, "When some people in severe distress imagine a peaceful end to what feels like unbearable pain, the availability of medical assistance in dying may shape their thinking, and current safeguards do not seem sufficient to prevent tragic outcomes. Torina suspects that her niece would still be alive had it been just a little harder for her to secure lethal medication."

Mary Vought, disability advocate, former presidential appointee of the National Council on Disability and a mother of a child with a disability, writes "The bill claims that 'no person will be considered a qualifying patient … solely because of advanced age or disability.' But this supposed 'protection' amounts to little more than a political fig leaf to hide the obvious implications: the most vulnerable patients would be at risk — quite possibly because a friend, medical professional or family member has encouraged them to end their own life."

John Schwenkler and Philip Reed, both philosophy professors, states, "Advocates for legalization often insist that there is no evidence of coercion in the states where this practice has been made legal. In making this argument, they seem to imagine only the kind of situation where a greedy individual, anxious to receive a promised inheritance, terrorizes a terminally ill relative into ending his or her life."

Several writers from Policy Options, share findings from a report on access to palliative care in Canada. "According to the World Health Organization, palliative care is recognized as part of the human right to health. But access to palliative care in Canada is neither equitable nor universal, in spite of repeated calls to address this." 

The Patients' Rights Action Fund (PRAF) is a 501(c)(4) and a leading national, non-partisan single-issue organization that protects the rights of patients, people with disabilities, older adults, and other historically underrepresented groups from deadly harm and discrimination inherent in assisted suicide laws.

The Institute for Patients' Rights (IPR) is a 501(c)(3) founded to conduct research, educates the public, and work to expand and implement tools of empowerment for older adults, people with disabilities, marginalized persons, and their families to combat policies and medical practices that devalue some people’s lives, putting them at great risk of deadly harm, as with assisted suicide laws.

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