A total of 389 Coloradans were prescribed aid-in-dying medication in 2023, according to a state report. Of them, 333 died.
Colorado law allows for terminally ill people to request to end their lives immediately. Prop. 106, enacted by voters in 2016, made suicide by medication legal.
“This act allows an eligible terminally-ill individual with a prognosis of six months or less to live to request and self-administer medical aid-in-dying medication in order to voluntarily end his or her life; authorizes a physician to prescribe medical aid-in-dying medication to a terminally ill individual under certain conditions; and creates criminal penalties for tampering with a person’s request for medical aid-in-dying medication or knowingly coercing a person with a terminal illness to request the medication,” according to a 2023 report by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The report notes that some people prescribed the medication never take it. Others wait days or months.