Legislators have filed their first set of bills before the start of the 2025 legislative session, and House Bill 140 — a bill to legalize medical aid in dying, commonly referred to as physician-assisted suicide — is back on the table.
The legislation would allow a terminally ill adult to self-administer medication to end their life after making two verbal and one written request — a guardian or surrogate healthcare decision maker cannot make the request on the adult’s behalf.
Physician-assisted death is currently legal in 10 other states and Washington D.C.
The bill has been circling the General Assembly for over a decade but made it to the House Floor for the first time this year and went through two votes in the Senate before reaching Gov. John Carney’s desk.
Carney ended up vetoing the legislation, citing morality concerns with the law.
While the bill’s champion, State Rep. Paul Baumbach, retired at the end of last session, the torch has been passed to State Rep. Eric Morrison (D-Glasgow), who explains he's been an advocate of the bill prior to his election in 2020.
“This is one of the bills that I worked back then to help get passed, doing different things, writing editorials, talking to legislators — different things. So, I've actually been passionate about this bill since 2016," Morrison said.
He says Democrats feel confident about passing the bill this legislative session, noting Governor-elect Matt Meyer has already publicly committed to signing the legislation.
"We feel very good about it. We've done the work for years. Of course, the vast amount of that credit goes to Rep. Paul Baumbach, and we think that we will get it across the finish line this year through the House, through the Senate and get it to the desk of a governor who will sign it.”
The bill passed in the Senate by just one vote in June, but two seats will be changing with the impending vacancies of Lt. Gov.-elect Kyle Evans Gay and Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride.
Constitutionally outlawing the death penalty is also making a reappearance next year. The bill failed 24-15 in the House in 2024 — shy of the required two-thirds vote — but capital punishment remains unenforceable in Delaware.
