The Connecticut General Assembly will again skip considering a bill that would provide a legal avenue for medical aid in dying, or physician-assisted suicide, in the state.
“I’m disappointed,” said state Rep. Josh Elliott, a Hamden Democrat who’s been a longtime legislative champion of the proposal. “But in this work you get used to it. No matter how refined your legislative agenda is, it always ends up functionally being throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. It didn’t stick this year — but now in my fifth term, I know that there is always next year.”
Elliott had introduced the bill this year alongside two colleagues, but it was not raised by the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee before a deadline to advance it further.
CT Insider reported in 2024 that Elliott and advocates planned to skip that year’s session in the hopes of taking it up again this year.
The legislation would have brought Connecticut in line with 10 states and the District of Columbia in allowing doctors to prescribe medication for patients to end their own lives. Those states and D.C. require patients to have been diagnosed as having a short time to live from a terminal illness. The laws also require patients to be determined to be of sound mind and capable of informed consent.
Advocates on both sides of the debate over the practice responded Thursday.
“Second Thoughts Connecticut was glad to hear that our state legislature continues to move cautiously when it comes to medical assisted suicide,” said Cathy Ludlum of Second Thoughts Connecticut, a group of disability rights advocates opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide.
“Legislators have wisely stopped it from coming here this year, and we are thankful,” Ludlum said. “People in distress need support, not a fast-track to death.”
Tim Appleton, senior campaign director at the pro-medical aid in dying advocacy group Compassion & Choices, said the news of the bill’s failure to advance was “tragically unfortunate.”
“Legislative inaction on an issue such as this is a painful death sentence to those who face terminal illness and need this option now,” Appleton said. “The need for this legislation will not change, regardless of what has happened today. We are going to continue this fight.”
Elliott posited that the bill’s failure was partially the result of Public Health Committee leadership feeling that the committee’s limited time would be better reserved for dealing with potential challenges to public health posed by the Trump administration.
“The idea being that because there are so many unknowns from the federal level, we don't know what we're going to have to protect against,” Elliott said, “and that using an entire day for the public hearing [on the medical aid in dying bill] would not be a good use of our time.”
Elliott, a member of the committee, said he had pushed back on that notion.
Elliott said he believed the bill would ultimately pass and become law in Connecticut in some future legislative session.
“What I find with this bill specifically is that when people do see family members or loved ones start going through this process, minds do get changed, which is why the idea has a 75+% approval rating in Connecticut,” Elliott said.
“It's not a matter of if this bill gets passed,” Elliott said. “It's just a matter of when.”
