You may believe that Canada is the only country in North America to allow medically assisted suicide, but you'd be wrong — this procedure has now been adopted in parts of the US.Just last week, Illinois signed into law "Deb's Law," authorizing medical assistance in dying for those in the state — the 13th state to make it legal.The law allows adults with a terminal illness, who must have a prognosis of six months or less, to request a prescription from their doctor to self-ingest and die.Among the requirements, the law states two physicians must confirm the prognosis and the patient is mentally capable and not being coerced.As the law states, "The bill is modeled after laws in authorized jurisdictions, including the first legislation in Oregon, which has had over 25 years of experience with this law and has never had a single instance of abuse or coercion.".However, as Alliance Vita has reported, Oregon's medical assistance in dying (MAID) data may show some concerning statistics.In the 2022 annual report on MAID cases in Oregon, 431 prescriptions were issued by 146 doctors.The doctors prescribing represented 0.9% of the actual population of doctors in the state.It also showed most of the doctors were prescribing the drugs once or twice per year, while only one was prescribing it 51 times, which corresponds to virtually once per week..They also note that over the past 25 years Oregon has had MAID, there has been a reduction in the duration of psychiatric evaluation timeline when prescribing the drug — falling from an average of 18 weeks in 2010 to 5 weeks in 2022. Also, the eligibility criteria for receiving MAID involves a 15-day cooling-off period which "a quarter of the patients were exempted from in 2022 due to the imminent terminal phase of their illness," stated Alliance Vita.But of course — these two states are not the only ones that have their own MAID laws, here's a list of all the others:.1. Hawaii2. Washington State3. Washington, DC4. Vermont5. New Mexico.6. New Jersey7. Montana8. Delaware9. Colorado10. California.And as Kelsi Sheren reports, more are adding up.According to the Dying with Dignity (DWD), seven other states are considering legalizing MAID:1. Indiana2. New York3. Massachusetts 4. North Carolina.5. Minnesota6. Pennsylvania7. New HampshireOn the topic, Glenn Beck, an American political commentator, had this to say, "So you look at this as compassion and so when it gets worse and worse until the very end, you don't recognize it — they are beginning to a little bit in Canada to see what's coming their way."Referring to MAID in Canada, Beck asks, "And why is it happening?"."Because they can no longer afford socialized medicine — they can't afford to fulfill the promises."The MAID law in Illinois will come into effect in September 2026.
