NCD letter on bipartisan request of HHS regarding assisted suicide

July 16, 2026

The Honorable James Lankford
U.S. Senate
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510

The Honorable Tim Kaine
U.S. Senate|
231 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Gregory Murphy, M.D.|
U.S. House of Representatives
407 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC 20515

The Honorable J. Luis Correa
U.S. House of Representatives
2082 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington DC 20515

Dear Senators Lankford and Kaine, and Congressmen Murphy and Correa:

I am writing as Acting Chairman of the National Council on Disability (NCD) – an independent, bipartisan federal agency that advises Congress, the President, and other federal agencies on matters affecting the lives of people with disabilities – to express our gratitude for your attention to the interests of people with disabilities, as evidenced in your July 9, 2026 letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy on the topic of the implementation of assisted suicide laws across the country and potentially discriminatory practices in hospice care.

We are grateful that your recent letter evinced an understanding of our long-held advisement to state and federal policymakers regarding the dangers of assisted suicide to the disabled, including concerns regarding informed consent; the gray definitions of “terminal illness” that state reports have repeatedly shown include people with a host of disabilities that are treatable, such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, hernias, and anorexia; unmet disability services needs as motivating requests for lethal medication; the potential for patient coercion and abuse by a caregiver or heir; and suicide contagion.

Since 1997, NCD has sounded the alarm about the pursuit and passage of these laws, across multiple administrations and across chairpersons at NCD appointed by both parties. We were gratified that your letter was bipartisan and bicameral, as the concerns of disabled Americans are not limited by party or politics.

NCD continually monitors evolving assisted suicide policy, domestically and abroad, including taking notice of the experiences and concerns of disabled Canadians north of the border under Canada’s “Track 2” which makes people with disabilities eligible for government sanctioned assisted suicide and euthanasia on the basis of their disability alone – a criteria that the United Nations has even recently formally spoken out against as violative of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Accordingly, NCD Council Members recently decided to revisit and update our 2019 research report on assisted suicide and update our recommendations for policymakers, particularly in view of proposed expansion efforts in several states. Given your offices’ leadership in this space, we will keep you apprised of the scoping and progress of this report in the months to come.

NCD stands ready to assist if we can be of service to your efforts on this topic. Please contact Joan Durocher, our Director of Policy and General Counsel, if we can be of service, at jdurocher@ncd.gov.

Thank you again for your attention to this important topic.

Respectfully,

Neil Romano
Acting Chairman

cc: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services;

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services