The proposed legislation does not include a requirement for doctors or medical professionals to be with patients when they commit suicide, begging the question whether the drugs were knowingly and voluntarily ingested by the patient/individual.

In the Netherlands, where assisted suicide is legal, hundreds of people die without consent each year. Here in the U.S., data from the state of Oregon—where suicide laws have been on the books for 25 years—suggest physicians are becoming increasingly removed from patient decision-making.

In other states and nations that have passed laws encouraging assisted suicide, additional legislative action has promoted suicide among those with physical disabilities and mental illness.

Once policymakers begin allowing suicide, the laws are quickly expanded to include people with non-life-threatening conditions, many of which are treatable.

The Michigan Senate bills permit health insurance companies to begin refusing coverage of lifesaving or palliative treatment in favor of the much cheaper alternative – a deadly assisted suicide prescription.

The projected cost savings between lifesaving drugs and assisted suicide drugs range from $33.2 million to $124.3 million annually.

Despite the heightened threat to those suffering from mental illness, the Senate bills do not require patients preparing to commit suicide to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before ending their lives.

The bills could permit depressed individuals to obtain lethal drugs without undergoing necessary assessment or treatment. This is a disastrous outcome for the people of Michigan.