Podcast Summary:

Breakpoint – Colorado and Assisted Suicide
Host: John Stonestreet, Colson Center
Date: October 30, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, John Stonestreet examines the troubling trajectory of assisted suicide laws in Colorado, placing them in the larger context of international trends. With a Christian worldview, he critiques the expansion of these laws, highlights real-life consequences, and calls listeners to recognize the inherent value of every human life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. International Context: The Expansion of Assisted Suicide

• Canada's Example:
  • In 2016, Canada legalized “medical assistance in dying (MAID)”.
  • Now, “the practice accounts for 1 in 20 of all deaths in that country.” ([00:44])
  • Initial restrictions continue to erode; now includes eligibility for those with mental illness (e.g., PTSD, depression).
  • Quote: “Everywhere it has been legalized, the so-called right to die inevitably becomes the duty to die.” (John Stonestreet, 00:52)
  • Netherlands: Reports of physicians intentionally administering lethal injections without patient request — including to children and the mentally ill.

2. Colorado’s Assisted Suicide Law and Recent Changes

• Original Law: Colorado’s 2016 End of Life Options Act permitted physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs for adults with terminal diagnoses.
• Recent Expansions:
  • Now includes certain registered nurses as prescribers.
  • “The waiting period [was] reduced from 15 days to just seven.” ([01:42])
• Legal Challenges:
  1. Residency Requirement Lawsuit:
     • Compassion and Choices (formerly the Hemlock Society) wants to strike down the residency requirement as discriminatory.
     • Implication: If successful, Colorado could become a “suicide tourism destination.” ([01:59])
  2. Terminal Anorexia Lawsuit:
     • Seeks to restrict lethal prescriptions for severe eating disorders.
     • Doctors claim “terminal anorexia” justifies assisted suicide, arguing patients “lack the will to live and… cannot continue the fight.” ([02:17])
     • Dr. Patricia Westmoreland (psychiatrist): “Anorexia is primarily a psychiatric condition. It's treatable, not terminal.” ([02:26])
     • “Patients suffering from extreme anorexia are not mentally healthy enough to make a decision with such dire consequences.” (Dr. Westmoreland, quoted by Stonestreet, 02:34)

3. The Slippery Slope and Eroding Safeguards

• Laws initially promise safeguards like waiting periods and capacity assessments, but these are quickly compromised.
• Definition of “terminal” conditions keeps broadening.
• Quote: “The slope of medicalized killing is always slippery. The safeguards never hold.” (John Stonestreet, 04:28)

4. Disability Rights Concerns

• Institute for Patient Rights and disability advocates challenge the law as discriminatory.
  • Argue it singles out individuals with disabilities, offering lethal drugs where suicide prevention would be provided to non-disabled people.
  • Stonestreet: “Colorado is offering those who have disabilities the option of killing themselves… [implying] their lives are less valuable.” ([03:17])

5. Case Study: Jane Allen

• 29-year-old Jane Allen, with anorexia, was given a terminal diagnosis and a lethal prescription.
• Her father intervened; drugs were removed by court order.
• Jane’s health improved, and she lived independently for years before dying of a heart condition.
  • Stonestreet: “Jane's case illustrates the problem with assisted suicide laws like Colorado's. These are laws that prey on the most vulnerable.” ([03:51])

6. Larger Implications and Christian Response

• Laws like these, Stonestreet asserts, “poison family relationships,” “corrupt the medical profession,” and force doctors into deciding who is worthy of life.
• Calls for Christians to affirm: “Every single life has inherent, eternal value. Lawmakers and medical professionals cannot change what the Creator has already decided.” ([04:13])
• Advocates for praying for and passing laws upholding the dignity of every person “from conception to natural death.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the erosion of safeguards:
  “Assisted suicide is always a slippery slope… Once passed, these laws always expand.”
  — John Stonestreet (00:54)

• On ‘terminal anorexia’:
  “Anorexia is primarily a psychiatric condition. It's treatable, not terminal.”
  — Dr. Patricia Westmoreland (quoted) (02:26)

  “Patients suffering from extreme anorexia are not mentally healthy enough to make a decision with such dire consequences.”
  — Dr. Patricia Westmoreland (quoted) (02:34)

• On the impact for those with disabilities:
  “Colorado is offering those who have disabilities the option of killing themselves… their lives are less valuable and not worth preserving.”
  — John Stonestreet (03:17)

• Christian teaching:
  “Every single life has inherent, eternal value. Lawmakers and medical professionals cannot change what the Creator has already decided.”
  — John Stonestreet (04:13)

Important Segment Timestamps

• Canada’s MAID law expansion and international context: 00:44 – 01:32
• Colorado’s legal and legislative changes: 01:33 – 02:09
• The lawsuits in Colorado (assisted suicide tourism, ‘terminal anorexia’): 01:59 – 02:44
• Disability rights challenge and Jane Allen’s story: 03:08 – 03:51
• Summary and Christian perspective/response: 04:13 – 04:52

Conclusion

John Stonestreet delivers a passionate and well-supported critique of assisted suicide’s “slippery slope,” especially as witnessed in Colorado. He connects the legislative details and personal stories to a broader Christian call to uphold the equal value of all human life, advocating vigilance and compassion over acquiescence to newly legalized forms of “medicalized death.”