Our Position

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Minnesota Family Council opposes the legalization of physician assisted suicide. God fashions each human life in his own image (Genesis 1:26). This bearing of God’s image bestows value and significance on each person; value is not based on a person’s size, location, sentience, intelligence, or independence.

The bearing of God’s image also carries communal responsibility – responsibility to care for others and to care particularly for vulnerable people. Legalization of physician assisted suicide (PAS) is an abandonment of care for vulnerable people. Although assisted suicide legislation takes on different forms in various jurisdictions, the most recent public policy proposal in Minnesota would allow a person who has received a 6-month prognosis to legally seek life-ending drugs from a medical professional.

In Minnesota, people already can choose or refuse healthcare, and they can seek palliative or hospice care. When PAS is legalized, people can seek drugs to terminate their life with sign-off from a provider. The only difference between this scenario and euthanasia is self-administration of the drugs rather than provider administration. In Canada, both PAS and euthanasia are legal.

Research from Canada, where assisted suicide has been legal since 2016, consistently shows that physician assisted suicide and euthanasia has a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities. The line between “right to die” and “duty to die” becomes unclear in a healthcare system  In 2021, the Canadian government expanded the country’s Medical Aid-In Dying (MAiD) law to include people with non-terminal illnesses. The law now also includes a provision that mental illness will also be a qualifying condition for MAiD in 2027.

In a research report on the impact of MAiD in Canada, Cardus, a Canadian Christian think tank, reports, “The evidence indicates that MAiD is increasingly driven by disability status, rather than by underlying illness.” When assisted suicide is legalized, the marginalized and vulnerable in society, particularly the elderly and folks with disabilities, are targeted to consider this a “treatment.” Physician assisted suicide is an abandonment of people who need healthcare and support.  

Current Public Policy Proposals in Discussion Regarding Physician Assisted Suicide

·  MFC Opposes: Legalization of Physician Assisted Suicide. HF2998/SF3215 (2025)

FAQ

Q: Do you believe in prolonging life at all costs?

A: No, opposing the legalization of physician assisted suicide does not mean that Minnesota Family Council supports artificial prolonging of life. A profound moral difference exists between choosing to take lethal drugs to end life and deciding to discontinue life support when there is no more life to sustain.