The possibility of another attempt to legalize assisted suicide in Wisconsin is drawing concern from Catholic advocates as the state prepares for a new legislative

(Photo by ana_c_golpe at Morguefile.com)

session in 2027.

The Wisconsin Catholic Conference opposed legislation introduced during the 2025-26 session that would have allowed certain terminally ill adults to request medication to end their lives. The legislation failed to pass.

Catholic advocates say their opposition is rooted in the Church’s teaching on the inherent dignity of human life, including when a person is suffering or approaching death.

“The Catholic Church says that you are made in the image of the likeness of God, and so you have inherent worth and dignity because you’re a child of God,” Wisconsin Catholic Conference Executive Director David Earleywine said. “Eliminating the person that’s suffering is not the way to eliminate the suffering.”

“When you look at the world through the lens of God, you know that we are not our own. It is not our body. It’s a body that he’s allowing us to use,” said Deacon Rich Fedor, Director for the Office of Respect Life Ministry for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. “We have to use it as he intended us to use it.”

The Issue at Hand

Assembly Bill 1164 and Senate Bill 1114 were introduced during the 2025-26 legislative session but failed to pass.

“This bill permits an individual who is at least 18 years of age, mentally capable, and has a terminal disease with a prognosis of less than six months to live, to voluntarily request a prescription for medication for the purpose of ending his or her life,” the bill said.

A licensed physician, advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant would have been given the right to issue the prescription.

Barbara Lyons, Special Projects Coordinator for the Patients Rights Action Fund, raised concerns about provisions of the Wisconsin proposal during a Sept. 17 webinar on assisted suicide.

“The Wisconsin bill has no residency requirement, which would make Wisconsin a suicide tourist destination. Patients who are not dying could receive lethal drugs,” Lyons said.

“The 15-day waiting period can be waived, allowing same day prescription and death, and the lethal drugs can be delivered by mail.”

Concerns for People With Disabilities

Tami Jackson, public policy analyst and legislative liaison for the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities, told webinar participants that assumptions about the quality of life of people with disabilities can influence their treatment.

“82% of physicians view people with disabilities as [significantly] having a low quality of life,” Jackson said. “You hear that often in conversations with families when [someone] comes out of surgery,” she adds, “an assumption that their life is of less value.”

Dr. Paul Young, Wisconsin regional director and an associate director for the American Academy of Medical Ethics, shared how people with disabilities disproportionately endure mental health issues like depression, which can affect end-of-life decisions.

“20% of our patients experience clinical depression, major depressive disorder at the end of life, and with that, a 25-times greater rate of suicide,” Dr. Young shared. “There’s a direct correlation between those symptoms of depression and hopelessness and a desire for hastened death. And that is the reason people are electing assisted suicide.”

Alternatives to assisted suicide

Deacon Fedor’s life work has been spent in the ministry of medicine, of accompanying and helping to heal the soul when the human body is close to death.

As a nurse, he has lived and worked within the palliative and hospice care spaces that the Catholic Church considers the inherently moral and most loving alternative when facing this issue. Though he advocates Catholic teaching against assisted suicide, he is not without empathy for those who suffer, particularly people who consider themselves burdens on their families.

“Most often, people are citing the perceived lack of autonomy, the perceived lack of quality of life,” he said. “They’re often counseled of ‘You know, you really put a burden on your family. Why don’t you just go ahead?’ They’re particularly vulnerable to that, because they do feel like they’re a burden.”

He says that people and their families can see palliative or hospice care as options that help the person understand that the perception of being a burden may be understandable, but it is false in the eyes of the God who made them.

“You tell them, ‘No, I care about you. You matter to me. I’m going to be here to help you. You’re not a burden,’” Fedor said of how he would approach individuals in hospice care with a life-affirming message.

Responding in the Public Square

The 2026 general election will determine the makeup of the Wisconsin Legislature that convenes in January. All 99 Assembly seats and 17 of the state’s 33 Senate seats are on the Nov. 3 ballot. There is no voting record on AB 1164/SB 1114 because the legislation did not receive a vote.

Earleywine encouraged Catholics interested in the issue to sign up for Wisconsin Catholic Conference action alerts, which provide information about legislation and ways to contact elected officials.

“We’ll put out action alerts that you can then basically one-click, send an email to your local state senator or rep, or whoever is needed to be contacted at that time, with kind of a precrafted message that’s going to align with Church teaching [so] they can have their voice heard,” Earleywine said.

What can Catholics pastorally do to walk beside those who suffer?

Deacon Fedor encourages Catholic doctors and medical professionals to become familiar with the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He also encourages them to attend the Converging Roads bioethics conference presented by the St. John Paul II Foundation on Nov. 7 at Marquette University.

Earleywine said Catholics can also respond personally by accompanying people who are suffering.

“Whether it’s visiting people, or finding ways to integrate them into our communities and making sure that they are able to get to Mass, [walk] with them in some of that suffering,” Earleywine said.