Death vacations grow in popularity as states loosen assisted suicide laws

With increased euthanasia legislation across the U.S., as well as the weakening of residency requirements for some of these states, a new form of “medical” tourism is on the rise: traveling to die.

In May 2023, Vermont lifted its residency requirement for assisted suicide, which resulted in nonresidents flocking to the state to end their lives. Non-residents comprised almost 25% of all assisted suicide cases in Vermont according to data collected between May 2023 and June 2024. Meanwhile, in November 2023, the Vermont Department of Health found that the number of people with terminal illnesses taking advantage of hospice care has begun to decline.

In July 2023, the first state to legalize assisted suicide – Oregon – became the second state behind Vermont to remove its residency requirements, opening the doors for nonresidents seeking euthanasia to take advantage of their laws. As Live Action News has reported, in Oregon at least 23 people are known to have traveled there specifically for assisted suicide – with Brittany Maynard being the most notorious example. But the number of out-of-state residents who traveled for assisted suicide is likely higher, as Oregon does not collect residency status as part of the application process. In 2024, the state of Oregon reported a troubling 21% increase in overall assisted suicide cases.

The year 2024 saw an increase in assisted suicide legislation as well, with 19 states bringing the topic to the legislative floor. Of those states, only Delaware’s legislation passed both chambers; the bill is currently on the governor’s desk awaiting a signature, with no indication of what he plans to do. Assisted suicide is currently legal in 10 U.S. states: Oregon, Maine, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Washington, Hawaii, New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Vermont.

If euthanasia activists succeed in pushing assisted suicide laws in states around the country, assisted suicide tourism within the U.S. could expand even further. New Jersey’s residency requirement may be short-lived, as it currently faces a federal lawsuit brought by the same pro-euthanasia group that sued Vermont and Oregon for their residency requirements.

This slippery slope pattern is all too common in countries that legalize the intentional killing of human beings.

The Netherlands was one of the first countries to legalize physician-assisted suicide in 2002, under strict regulations and limited circumstances. In the two decades since, however, assisted suicide laws have become so lax that activists are now pushing for anyone to be allowed to help another person commit suicide, for any reason.

Although often touted as a matter of individual freedom, the grim truth is that euthanasia saves governments money.

It is simply more cost-effective to put someone to death than continue to support their expensive end-of-life medical care for an unpredictable length of time. To boot, these states also get the final tourism dollars of the patient’s life as they wait the 15 days between requesting fatal medication and receiving it.

The financial piece of the puzzle is quite clear in countries around the world where euthanasia is well-established.

In Belgium, the head of a major insurance company has said the quiet part out loud, touting the cost savings for putting people to death. Similarly, the perverse monetary incentives of assisted suicide haven’t gone unnoticed in the UK, where the legalization of euthanasia is currently being considered. Canada has recently calculated these grisly savings, putting an actual dollar amount on the voluntary death of its citizens, claiming it will save the healthcare system somewhere between $34.7 and $136.8 million per year.

In the U.S., the state of California has already done the same morbid calculations.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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