{"id":30964,"date":"2026-02-25T13:57:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=30964"},"modified":"2026-02-25T13:57:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:57:53","slug":"new-york-illinois-among-states-with-new-bills-allowing-euthanasia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/02\/new-york-illinois-among-states-with-new-bills-allowing-euthanasia","title":{"rendered":"New York, Illinois Among States With New Bills Allowing Euthanasia"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30967\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30967\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/02\/Assisted-Suicide_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30967\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/02\/Assisted-Suicide_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30967\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>New York governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill that will allow New Yorkers to seek out physician-assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia. There are now 13 states in the United States, as well as Washington, DC that permit those with terminal illness to end their lives, with both Illinois and New York passing laws that will allow the action later this year in their states. Hochul called signing the bill \u201can incredibly difficult decision,\u201d but shared that her own mother had died of ALS (sometimes referred to as Lou Gehrig\u2019s Disease.\u00a0 \u201cMy mother died of ALS, and I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and being powerless to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The increasing prevalence of euthanasia in the United States and other countries has many Christians and conservatives concerned about how such laws could be used in the future for population control and wiping out those considered \u201cundesirable\u201d in the population such as older citizens and those with disabilities. \u201cWe&#8217;ve seen time and again, when you pass these laws, there becomes this sense of coercion of those individuals to say, &#8216;Oh, you&#8217;re too much of a burden on your family, or you&#8217;re too much of a drain on the medical system,\u2019\u201d said Matt Sharp with Alliance Defending Freedom. A recent story of a 26-year-old Canadian man with seasonal depression who used the country\u2019s MAID service to kill himself has raised concerns over euthanasia\u2019s application.<\/p>\n<p>Another report claimed that an elderly Canadian woman was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-15489605\/canadian-woman-euthanized-ontario-maid.html\">euthanized against her will<\/a> when her husband grew tired of caring for her. \u201cThis is the natural consequence of a worldview that loves death but masquerades as \u2018compassionate.\u2019 There\u2019s nothing compassionate\u201d about ending the lives of those who are suffering. It\u2019s exploitative and dehumanizing, and it has proven to be a\u00a0<em>very<\/em>\u00a0slippery slope,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/answersingenesis.org\/sanctity-of-life\/euthanasia\/canadian-woman-euthanized-against-her-will\/?srsltid=AfmBOoqs8A01bHG3w4aQbakiQDUKV_p_rmBWKpBIfQXZpjDz9EO8rZuE\">wrote Answers in Genesis\u2019s Ken Ham<\/a>. There is also the growing concern that Canada will allow minors to seek euthanasia without the consent of a parent, meaning the US and other nations could follow suit. Meanwhile, Americans have grown soft on \u201cdoctor-assisted suicide\u201d or \u201ceuthanasia.\u201d A 2024 Gallup poll found that 66% to 71% of Americans did not find it \u201cmorally wrong.\u201d \u201cWe expect there&#8217;s possibly more dominoes that will fall as far as other states legalizing assisted suicide, which we find, of course, very unfortunate.\u201d said Vice President of Advocacy and Bioethics for the Christian Medical and Dental Association, Dr. Bick Lantz. \u201cAnd we&#8217;re following the footsteps of Canada, which has legalized throughout the entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill that will allow New Yorkers to seek out physician-assisted suicide, also known as euthanasia. There are now 13 states in the United States, as well as Washington, DC that permit those with terminal illness to end their lives, with both Illinois and New York passing laws&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":30967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New York, Illinois Among States With New Bills Allowing Euthanasia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NY legalizes assisted suicide for the terminally ill, sparking concern among Christians over coercion, ethics, and the sanctity of life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/02\/new-york-illinois-among-states-with-new-bills-allowing-euthanasia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New York, Illinois Among States With New Bills Allowing Euthanasia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NY legalizes assisted suicide for the terminally ill, sparking concern among Christians over coercion, ethics, and the sanctity of life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/02\/new-york-illinois-among-states-with-new-bills-allowing-euthanasia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-25T18:57:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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