Death with dignity is not legal in Pennsylvania. The state’s criminal code treats helping another person end their life as a felony, and no Pennsylvania court has recognized a right to physician-assisted death. Terminally ill residents still have real legal tools for shaping their end-of-life care, and one neighboring state now permits medical aid in dying for its own residents.
Why Medical Aid in Dying Is Illegal in Pennsylvania
Under Pennsylvania’s criminal code, intentionally helping someone end their life is a second-degree felony if the person actually dies or attempts suicide as a result.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 18 – Causing or Aiding Suicide A second-degree felony carries up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 18 Chapter 11 – Authorized Disposition of Offenders If the person doesn’t die or attempt suicide, the charge drops to a second-degree misdemeanor, which still leaves a criminal record.
The statute also reaches a more extreme situation: someone who causes another person to commit suicide through force, coercion, or deception can be charged with criminal homicide.1Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 18 – Causing or Aiding Suicide
The practical effect is that no physician in Pennsylvania can legally prescribe life-ending medication to a terminally ill patient, no matter what the patient wants. Doctors, pharmacists, family members, and anyone else who participates in an assisted death risks prosecution. Pennsylvania has not carved out a medical exception, and its courts have not recognized a constitutional right to receive help dying.
Is a Death with Dignity Law on the Way?
Legislators have tried to change the law more than once. The most recent attempt is the Compassionate Aid in Dying Act, filed as House Bill 1109 and Senate Bill 570 in the 2025-2026 session. Both bills were introduced in April 2025 and carried over into 2026. They sit in the Judiciary Committee of their respective chambers, with no vote scheduled.
Earlier bills followed the same path. In the 2021-2022 session, SB 405 (the End of Life Options Act) was modeled after Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and died in committee. Opposition has consistently come from religious organizations, disability rights groups, and some medical associations.
If a bill eventually passes, it would let licensed physicians prescribe life-ending medication to qualifying patients without criminal or professional consequences. The Pennsylvania proposals are modeled on other state laws, which typically require a terminal diagnosis with a life expectancy of six months or less, decision-making capacity, and self-administration of the medication. A residency requirement is almost certain to be part of any Pennsylvania version.
What Pennsylvania Residents Can Legally Do Now
Even without aid in dying, Pennsylvania law gives you meaningful control over your end-of-life medical care. These tools don’t shorten life. They let you decide what treatments you do and don’t want when you can no longer speak for yourself.
Living Will
A living will documents your preferences about life-sustaining treatments like ventilators, feeding tubes, and IV nutrition. It applies when you have a terminal condition or are permanently unconscious and can no longer make your own medical decisions. Any adult of sound mind who is at least 18, has graduated high school, has married, or is an emancipated minor can create one.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 20 Chapter 54 – Health Care
The document has to be dated, signed by you (or by someone at your direction if you can’t sign), and witnessed by two people who are each at least 18. Healthcare providers currently treating you can’t sign for you.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 20 Chapter 54 – Health Care
Health Care Power of Attorney
A health care power of attorney names someone (your health care agent) to make medical decisions on your behalf if you become unable to make them yourself.3Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 20 Chapter 54 – Health Care It’s broader than a living will because it covers all health care decisions, not just life-sustaining treatment. You can combine both into a single advance directive.
Choosing the right agent is the decision that actually matters here. Pick someone who understands your values, can handle conflict with family members who disagree, and won’t freeze under pressure. A spouse or oldest child is the default choice, but the default isn’t always the right person to carry out difficult wishes.
POLST Form
A POLST (Pennsylvania Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) form is a set of medical orders, not just a statement of preferences. A physician, physician assistant, or certified registered nurse practitioner signs it along with you or your surrogate.4Pennsylvania Department of Health. Pennsylvania Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Form Because it’s a medical order, emergency responders can follow it immediately without waiting for a hospital ethics review or a family conversation.
The POLST travels with you across care settings, whether you’re at home, in a nursing facility, or being transported by ambulance. It covers resuscitation, the level of medical intervention you want, and whether you want artificially administered nutrition. For someone with a serious illness who wants their wishes honored in an emergency, the POLST is the most actionable document available in Pennsylvania.
Legal Options That Can Hasten or Ease the End of Life
Two practices sometimes come up in conversations about end-of-life autonomy: palliative sedation and voluntarily stopping eating and drinking. Neither is regulated the way medical aid in dying is, and both are legally available in Pennsylvania right now.
Palliative Sedation
Palliative sedation uses medication to lower a dying patient’s consciousness when symptoms become unbearable and can’t be controlled any other way. The intent is to relieve suffering, not to cause death, and research indicates it does not shorten life. The U.S. Supreme Court has supported the right of patients to pursue relief from suffering even when the treatment may unintentionally hasten death, distinguishing this practice from assisted suicide.
It’s typically reserved for patients in the final hours or days of life whose severe pain, delirium, or difficulty breathing doesn’t respond to standard doses of medication. Careful documentation of the patient’s goals and the medical team’s reasoning is essential. This isn’t something a patient can request casually; it requires close work between the patient (or their surrogate), the physician, and often a palliative care team.
Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking
Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) is what it sounds like: a person with decision-making capacity chooses to stop consuming food and water, with the understanding that death will follow, usually within one to three weeks. Courts have generally recognized the right to refuse nutrition and hydration as an extension of the right to refuse any medical treatment, and legal scholars note that VSED does not constitute assisted suicide, abuse, or neglect.
VSED doesn’t require a prescription or a physician’s order, but medical support matters. Hospice teams can manage the discomfort that comes with it, including dry mouth and restlessness. Without that support, the process can be distressing for the patient and the family. Anyone considering this path should involve their physician and ideally enroll in hospice care first.
Hospice and Palliative Care
Pennsylvania has strong hospice and palliative care infrastructure. An estimated 97% of hospital inpatients in the state have access to hospital-based palliative care, and at least 35 community-based palliative care programs operate across the state. Hospice care, which focuses on comfort rather than cure for patients expected to live six months or less, is covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurance.
Palliative care differs from hospice in one important way: you don’t have to stop pursuing curative treatment to receive it. If you’re battling a serious illness and also dealing with pain, nausea, or emotional distress, a palliative care referral can happen alongside active treatment. Many people don’t realize this until late in their illness.
Can a Pennsylvania Resident Use Another State’s Law?
More than a dozen jurisdictions now authorize some form of medical aid in dying. For Pennsylvania residents, the closest is New Jersey, which enacted the Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act effective August 1, 2019.5New Jersey Department of Health. Medical Aid in Dying New Jersey’s law lets an adult resident with a terminal illness and the capacity to make health care decisions request a prescription for life-ending medication from their physician.
The key word is “resident.” New Jersey requires state residency, so a Pennsylvania resident can’t simply cross the border to access the program. Oregon and Vermont dropped their residency requirements in 2023 after legal challenges, but neither is a short drive from Pennsylvania. New York also now permits medical aid in dying and could be more accessible geographically depending on where you live in Pennsylvania, though that law has its own eligibility rules.
One more thing to know. Pennsylvania’s criminal statute on aiding a suicide could theoretically apply to people who help arrange travel or logistics for accessing aid in dying elsewhere. Whether prosecutors would actually pursue such a case is uncertain, but the legal risk isn’t zero. Anyone considering this route should talk with an attorney familiar with both states’ laws before taking any steps.