Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The California assisted suicide statute assumes that assisted suicide deaths are voluntary or self-administered. The lack of oversight in the law makes it impossible to assure that every death was voluntary and self-administered.

The 2024 California assisted suicide report that was recently released states that there were 1032 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2024 which was up from 969 in 2023.

The data is not accurate. 

The 2023 California assisted suicide report indicated that there were 884 reported assisted suicide deaths. Based on reporting problems, I predicted, last year, that the actual number was likely 925, but the 2024 report indicated that there were 969 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023. The difference of (969 – 884) means that 85 assisted suicide deaths were reported late in 2023 representing an almost 9% difference.

Based on the California reporting system, I predict that the 2025 California report will indicate that there were at least 1100 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2024.

The previous data is also problematic. 

The 2024 California assisted suicide report indicated that there were 896 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2022, the 2023 report indicated that there were 890 in 2022 and the 2022 report indicated that there were 853 in 2022. Why are the medical professionals filing the assisted suicide reports so late?

Further analysis: Ingestion status is unknown.

The 2024 report indicated that of the 1591 Californians who received the poison prescription, the ingestion status was unknown for 388 of the people. The problem with the unknown ingestion status increased greatly. The 2023 report indicated that there were 276 Californians who received the lethal poison but whose ingestion status was unknown. 

When the ingestion status is unknown, they know that the person was approved and received the lethal prescription, but they do not know if they died or how they died.

Based on the data we know that some of the 388 people, whose ingestion status is unknown, died a natural death and some of them died by assisted suicide but it is also likely that some of the 388 people died by assisted suicide but the assisted suicide death was unreported.

California uses a self-reporting system, meaning the medical professional who prescribed the poison prescription same person who is obligated to submit the assisted suicide death report. It is impossible to know that a person died by assisted suicide when the medical professional fails to submit the assisted suicide report and there is no oversight that uncovers unreported assisted suicide deaths.

More inaccurate data: Increase in lethal poison prescriptions.

The 2024 report indicates that there were 1591 lethal poison prescriptions written which was up from 1409 in 2023 and 1332 in 2022. 

But the data is problematic. The 2023 report indicated that there were 1281 lethal poison prescriptions written in 2023 and 1328 in 2022. Why is there a discrepancy of (1409 – 1281) 128 poison prescriptions for 2023 within the 2024 report?

Based on the data from previous years, it is likely that at least 1700 poison prescriptions were written in 2024. 

I can understand the problem with late reporting of assisted suicide deaths. I can understand the problem of under-reporting of assisted suicide deaths. I can’t understand the discrepancy concerning the poison prescription data. Prescriptions can also be tracked through through the pharmacy system, therefore the discrepancy should not exist.

The Times of San Diego reported that the California legislature passed Bill SB 403, a bill that expands the California assisted suicide law by removing the requirement that law be reviewed in 2031 and by removing certain reporting requirements.

Based on the lack of accurate data in the 2024 California assisted suicide report, I can understand why the California legislature would want to hide the date in future reports.

More articles on this topic:

• California 2023 assisted suicide report (Link). 
• It’s time to audit the death bureaucracy (Link). 
• How America Abandoned its assisted suicide safeguards (Link).
• Assisted suicide laws, once legal, inevitably expand (Link).
• California doctor faces up to 10 years in prison for fraudulently diagnosing his patients as terminal (Link).