TakeawaysDo you have the right to die?
A majority of U.S. adults say “yes” to this controversial question, and more jurisdictions are passing laws that allow terminally ill patients to voluntarily end their own lives.
More than one in four Americans live in a state where medical aid-in-dying (MAID) is legal. But there is arguably no other estate planning issue that so narrowly walks the line between morality and legality.
While MAID is legal in some areas, practices like euthanasia and assisted suicide generally are not, and conflating these terms can muddy the waters about what is and is not allowed.
And it is not just a matter of medical terminology. MAID is lawful only when every legal requirement is met. Failing to meet these strict criteria can result in questions about the person’s decision-making capacity, estate disputes, and even criminal charges when the right to “die with dignity” is exercised.
Anyone considering assisted dying has likely arrived at that place after deep soul-searching. Not giving equal consideration to its legal side, however, can turn a right into a crime and make what was intended to be a private and dignified act a public and messy one.
Death With Dignity, a group that campaigns for legislation, says that the term originates from the original Oregon MAID law. It still prefers “death with dignity,” but other recognized terms are “physician-assisted death,” “aid in dying,” and “physician aid in dying.”
Euthanasia is illegal throughout the U.S., including in states that have passed MAID laws. Death With Dignity notes that terms like “mercy killing,” “active euthanasia,” and “suicide or assisted suicide” are misused by the media and misrepresent MAID laws and practices.
By the end of 2026, more than 30 percent of Americans will reside in states where doctors may legally prescribe a fatal medication to terminally ill patients.
The latest state to allow assisted dying is New York, where Governor Hochul signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act in February 2026 (effective August 5, 2026). New York joins the 12 other states, in addition to Washington D.C., where assisted dying is legal. More than a dozen other states will consider similar legislation in 2026.
Although MAID accounts for less than 1 percent of deaths in the U.S. jurisdictions that permit it, public support for assisted dying is strong.
A 2024 Gallup poll found that 71 percent of Americans believe doctors should be allowed to intervene to end the life of a patient “by some painless means” if the patient and their family request it. Two-thirds agree that doctors should “be allowed by law to assist the patient to commit suicide.”
Gallup refers to this first option as “euthanasia” and the second as “doctor-assisted suicide,” a term it uses interchangeably with “MAID” in its polling. Both are different from suicide, which only 22 percent of Americans find morally acceptable, while more than half of Americans consider MAID to be moral, Gallup found.
Policymakers and proponents have landed on “MAID” because, as the American Bar Association writes, the patients who seek out this treatment “don’t want to die.” Rather, they recognize they’re already dying and “merely want to control the precise time and manner of their impending death.”
Many do not make this choice in the end. A January 2026 report that evaluated nearly three decades of MAID data since Oregon implemented the first law in 1997 found that more than 20,000 eligible individuals have received MAID prescriptions, with 12,425 — or slightly more than 62 percent — going on to ingest them.
The report also found that:
A separate 2022 study that aggregated 23 years of U.S. MAID data reveals that the median age of MAID death is 74. Most patients (88.6 percent) were white, nearly three-quarters (71.6 percent) had at least some college education, and most (90 percent) took the lethal medication dose at home.
The same researcher also looked at public knowledge about MAID in a 2025 study that found a notable lack of awareness about MAID’s legality.
Although polling shows broad public desire for this end-of-life option, more than half of U.S. adults (51.3 percent) surveyed didn’t know if MAID was legal in the U.S. and a nearly identical number (50.9 percent) did not know if it was legal in their state. However, 44 percent expressed interest in using MAID if they were terminally ill.
“People are dying in the hospital and are receiving aggressive discretionary treatments up until the day they die despite many people saying that this is not what they would want at end of life,” the researcher told the American Psychological Association.
Oregon was the first state to legalize assisted dying in 1994, and other states tend to follow its model, though there’s increasing variability.
In states that allow MAID, the law typically requires the patient to:
Notable state differences exist, however. For example:
When all state MAID requirements have been met, the physician can then prescribe the lethal medication that the patient will self-administer.
Importantly, most MAID statutes specify that a death carried out in compliance with the law is not considered suicide for purposes of wills, contracts, or insurance policies. But that protection applies only when the statutory requirements are strictly followed.
Anyone who has arrived at the decision to pursue MAID is making a profoundly personal choice within a specifically defined medical and legal framework.
But even when the decision itself is lawful and deliberate, failure to follow MAID statutes precisely can create serious legal consequences, not only for the patient, but also for the loved ones they leave behind.
Here are some common MAID-related legal risks and ways to mitigate them.
MAID often compresses time. When estate planning documents are revised close to the end of life, those changes may later be examined through a litigation lens.
What can go wrong:
How to reduce risk:
The person most involved in coordinating care or logistics may also be a primary beneficiary. That overlap can become a focal point after death.
What can go wrong:
How to reduce risk:
Some individuals choose to simplify their financial affairs before death by making gifts, retitling assets, or forgiving debts.
What can go wrong:
How to reduce risk:
Most MAID statutes specify that a death carried out in compliance with the law is not considered suicide for purposes of wills, contracts, or insurance policies. That protection depends on strict adherence to legal requirements.
What can go wrong:
How to reduce risk:
Criminal liability generally arises not from choosing MAID itself, but from failing to follow the law’s specific requirements.
What can go wrong:
How to reduce risk:
The right to die is increasingly recognized by state MAID laws. But exercising that right does not eliminate the responsibility to plan carefully beforehand. In some meaningful ways, it can raise the stakes.
End-of-life decisions — whether they involve MAID, hospice, palliative care, or other medical interventions — affect more than just you. Each option carries estate-planning, financial, and fiduciary implications that demand careful consideration before irreversible steps are taken.
Working with estate planning and elder law professionals can help you and your loved ones understand the consequences of those choices, coordinate medical and financial decision-making, and ensure that your legal documents reflect both your wishes and your family’s realities.
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