Not Dead Yet Files Delaware Lawsuit To Overturn Assisted Suicide Law

By Kelly Israel, 12/11/25 (pictured here).

Not Dead Yet is proud to join Sean Curran and five other organizational plaintiffs (Delaware ADAPT, Freedom Center for Independent Living, United Spinal Association, National Council on Independent Living, Institute for Patients’ Rights) in a lawsuit against health agencies in Delaware and their use of the End of Life Options Act (EOLOA). 

Not Dead Yet opposes assisted suicide laws as blatantly discriminatory and extremely dangerous. These laws treat disabled lives as not worth living and people with disabilities as better off dead. It’s time the citizens of Delaware fought back.  Our lawsuit argues that implementation of Delaware’s assisted suicide law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Delaware health agencies do so by applying EOLOA and steering patients with certain kinds of disabilities (namely, terminal illnesses) away from suicide prevention services and towards assisted suicide. 

For example, health agencies fail to apply stringent standards for suicide prevention in Delaware to patients with terminal illnesses and instead - by offering them EOLOA - direct these patients to end their own lives. The Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act are clear that this impermissibly treats individuals differently solely on the basis of disability.

Not Dead Yet Attends Bazelon’s 2025 Annual Awards Reception

By Kelly Israel on October 7, 2025   

On September 17, 2025, I was pleased to attend on behalf of Not D[ea]d Yet the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law’s 2025 Annual Awards Reception at the National Press Club. The event was larger than normal. I was surrounded by countless people,  disability rights movement members both well-known and obscure. We had come to celebrate our past and usher in the next chapter of our history.

A recording of the awards ceremony is available at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV9yDclCuK0 

The event honored first Congressman Steny Hoyer, [pictured above] one of the pioneers who worked to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act - our very own bill of rights in the United States. Hoyer spoke on the circumstances of the ADA’s passage and his debt of gratitude to his mentor. He also spoke of his gratitude towards the thousands of disabled Americans who advocated tirelessly for the bill in the late 1980s and early 90s.