Ten Years After a ‘Six Months to Live’ Diagnosis, Stephanie Packer travels to Delaware to Warn Against the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Stephanie Packer was told in 2012 that she had three years to live. So far, the doctors that made that prognosis are off by just 10 years.

Packer, 42, who lives in Orange County, Calif., visited Dover on March 11 to share her story with Delaware representatives who were then considering House Bill 140, which would legalize medical aid in dying, also called physician-assisted suicide. She was there to show them that there is life beyond that dire prognosis and to urge them to vote against passage of the bill.

HB 140 eventually passed the House of Representatives by a 21-17 vote with three legislators absent. It now awaits action in the Senate Executive Committee.

‘Suicide Contagion’ Is Reason to Defeat Aid in Dying

https://baytobaynews.com/stories/barrosse-suicide-contagion-is-reason-to-defeat-aid-in-dying,218741

Ellen Barrosse [pictured right] is the retired CEO of Synchrogenix Information Strategies, a global pharmaceutical services company founded in Delaware.

As the Delaware legislature debates House Bill 140, a measure to legalize physician-assisted suicide, the discussion typically centers on individual autonomy and end-of-life dignity. However, emerging research reveals troubling and unintended consequences: The legalization of assisted suicide is associated with increases in non-assisted suicide rates across the general population — a phenomenon known as “suicide contagion.”

Delaware Talking Points (2025)

By Margaret K. Dore, Esq., MBA

“Aid in Dying” has been a euphemism for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia since at least 1992.

Per the American Medical Association, "physician-assisted suicide" occurs when a doctor facilitates a patient’s death by providing the means or information to enable a patient to perform the life-ending act. "Euthanasia" is the administration of a lethal agent by another person to kill a patient. 

Persons assisting a suicide or euthanasia can have a personal agenda. Reported motives include: the “thrill” of getting other people to kill themselves; and wanting to see someone die.

This year's proposed Act, HB 140, has a formal application process to obtain a lethal dose for the purpose of killing other people. Once a lethal dose is issued by a pharmacy or other legal distributor, there is no required oversight. No medical person or even an official witness is required to be present at the death.

Current Delaware law prevents a person who kills another person, i.e., commits homicide, from inheriting from a person that he or she killed. The rationale is that a criminal should not be allowed to benefit from his or her crime.

Per the proposed Act, however, a person who intentionally kills another person is allowed to inherit from the person he or she killed. This is because deaths occurring pursuant to the proposed Act will be treated as natural, as if the person who died, had died from natural causes as opposed to an intentional lethal overdose." 

In the event of the proposed Act’s passage, Delaware residents with money, meaning the middle class and above, will be rendered sitting ducks to their heirs. Passage of the Act will create a perfect crime.

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