Colorado Assisted Suicide Law Challenged by Disability Advocates

A Colorado law that allows physician-assisted suicide is facing a legal challenge from groups representing individuals with life-threatening disabilities who say the state is wrongly steering people toward ending their lives instead of providing mental health care.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Colorado, alleges the state’s End of Life Operations Act (EOLOA) violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Affordable Care Act, as well as the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.

United Spinal Association, a nonprofit founded by paralyzed veterans, and other disability rights organizations say the law allows physicians and advanced practice registered nurses to certify patients as terminally ill and prescribe lethal drugs. But they said it doesn’t provide equal access to suicide prevention services and it discriminates against people with life-threatening disabilities “as compared to everyone else who expresses a wish to die to their medical provider.”

The suit alleges the state hasn’t done enough prevention as suicide remains one of the leading causes of death in Colorado.

EOLOA “lacks the safeguards needed to protect people with life-threatening disabilities from self-inflicted death caused by impaired judgment, depression, and undue influence by others,” the complaint said.

Enacted in 2016, EOLOA allows lethal drugs to be dispensed to patients with terminal illnesses who make two oral requests a minimum of one week apart, alongside a written request. The law also allows for same-day dispensing of drugs if the doctor finds a patient has less than 48 hours to live, the complaint said.

The law was amended in 2024 to expand the definition of a provider to include advanced practice registered nurses. Colorado laws don’t allow these nurses to certify patients as terminally ill for hospice eligibility, but under the EOLOA they are allowed to certify patients as terminally ill and prescribe lethal drugs, the complaint said.

Under EOLOA, “the entire protective network of services is withdrawn from plaintiffs and their members—solely based on a provider’s good faith prediction of death within six months,” the lawsuit said. “This creates a two-tiered medical system in which people who aresuicidal receive radically different treatment responses by their providers and protections from the State depending on whether the patient has what the provider deems to be a ‘terminal disease,’ i.e., based on disability.”

The complaint also alleged the law doesn’t require a mental health assessment for the patient requesting assisted suicide.

United Spinal Association is represented by Rosen, Bien, Galvan, and Grunfeld LLP.

Governor Jared Polis’ (D) office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

If you or someone you know needs help, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.

The case is United Spinal Ass’n v. State of Colo., D. Colo., No. 1:25-cv-02014, complaint filed 6/30/25.