An appeals court on Thursday rejected a bid from assisted-suicide activists who hoped to make New Jersey a destination for people seeking to end their own lives.
The Third Circuit upheld New Jersey’s residency requirement for doctor-assisted suicide, blocking an attempt to turn the Garden State into a hub for “suicide tourism.” New Jersey is one of nine states, plus Washington, D.C., that allow physicians to assist qualifying residents in ending their lives, but activists in recent years have increasingly challenged residency restrictions, arguing they violate constitutional rights.
“New Jersey has sound reasons to limit this grave choice to its own residents,” Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote in the opinion. “Protecting vulnerable patients and their doctors (not to mention avoiding friction with other states) justifies the residency requirement under any applicable test.”
The lawsuit, lodged by the assisted suicide advocacy group Compassion & Choices, on behalf of Paul Bryman, a New Jersey doctor, was previously dismissed by a district court.
“In our federal system, states are free to experiment with policies as grave as letting doctors assist suicide. Other states are free to keep it a crime,” Bibas wrote, adding that assisted suicide “does not appear to be a fundamental privilege, let alone a fundamental right, that states must accord visitors.”
Even if it were considered such a right, Bibas continued, “New Jersey has good reasons to limit it to New Jerseyans: protecting doctors from prosecution, preventing friction with other states, guarding patients from coercion, and ensuring that their decisions are rational and considered.”
In addition to New Jersey, nine jurisdictions — California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C — permit assisted suicide under Medical Aid In Dying (MAID) laws for residents. Delaware is set to join the list in 2026, and several other states are considering similar measures.
Compassion & Choices successfully sued Oregon and Vermont into dropping their residency rules, paving the way for what critics call “death tourism.” The group did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Opponents say removing New Jersey’s residency requirement would be especially dangerous given its proximity to states such as Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Hampshire that do not have MAID laws.
Critics of MAID laws point to Canada — which has some of the most expansive assisted suicide laws in the world — as a cautionary tale: in 2023, 4.7% of deaths in the country were assisted by physicians.
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