Arizona Lawmakers Reject Latest Push for Assisted Suicide

A Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) proposal backed, in part, by Soros-backed affiliated entities failed to advance in the Arizona Legislature this session after it was not heard in House committee, ending its path forward for the year.

House Bill 2569, also known as the Thomas M. Dow Act, sponsored by State Rep. Christopher Mathis (D-LD18), was not heard in House committee, halting the latest effort to establish a legal framework for medical aid in dying in Arizona. 

The measure would have allowed mentally competent adults with a terminal illness and a prognosis of six months or less to request a prescription for a lethal dose of medication to commit suicide. The medication would have been required to be self-administered orally. 

Arizona lawmakers have considered similar proposals for more than two decades. The first such legislation was introduced in 2003, and only once, in 2017, did a bill advance out of committee, though it ultimately failed to pass.

Under current Arizona law, A.R.S. § 13-1103, assisting another person in ending their life can expose an individual to criminal liability under the state’s manslaughter statute. A.R.S. § 36-3210 further states: “This chapter does not approve or authorize suicide, assisted suicide or mercy killing.”

Medical Aid In Dying, as outlined in the legislation, differs from euthanasia. In the United States, euthanasia—where a physician directly administers a lethal substance—remains illegal in all 50 states. Medical aid in dying laws instead require that the patient self-administer the prescribed medication. 

The Arizona proposal would have applied to terminally ill patients. Individuals experiencing chronic conditions, disabilities, or non-terminal suffering would not have qualified under the bill’s provisions. 

Advocacy organizations have continued to support the policy in Arizona. MAID is currently permitted in 10 states and the District of Columbia, including California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana (by the Montana Supreme Court’s Baxter v. Montana [2009]), New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Laws in additional states, including New York, Illinois, and Delaware, are expected to take effect in 2026, which would expand the total number of states permitting the practice to 13. 

Callie Riley, regional advocacy director for Compassion & Choices, told The Arizona Republic that efforts to advance such legislation in Arizona are ongoing and may take years to achieve.  

Compassion & Choices, which supports MAID legislation nationwide, has received funding from organizations associated with philanthropist George Soros, according to a 2016 report by Capital Research Center. The report states that Soros-affiliated entities, including the Open Society Institute and the Foundation to Promote Open Society, provided more than $7 million to the group beginning in 2008.

Federal lobbying disclosures compiled by OpenSecrets indicate the organization has engaged in advocacy efforts on end-of-life policy issues at both the state and federal levels.

As of this report, Arizona remains one of the majority 37 states where MAID remains illegal, including: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.