The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports that Hawaii recorded 59 assisted suicide deaths in 2025:
“A 55.3% increase from the 38 reported in 2024, according to the state Department of Health’s latest annual report on the Our Care, Our Choice Act.
“The 2025 figure is the highest annual total since the law took effect in January 2019. The cumulative number of reported deaths following ingestion of the medication reached 254 by the end of 2025.
“The increase comes as the department acknowledges limitations in its ability to track patients who receive prescriptions under the law, raising questions about the completeness of the state’s annual statistics and its oversight of the program.
“In its 2025 annual report, DOH acknowledged that it does not consistently receive complete follow-up information about patients who receive prescriptions under the law.”
While it may be concerning that Hawaii is struggling to keep track of those in receipt of lethal prescriptions, they are at least releasing data. We have no expectation of such a report for 2025 from Washington, the second US state to legalise assisted suicide:
“Following the 2025 General Legislative Session, the Department of Health (DOH) made the difficult decision to pause the annual statistical reporting for the Death with Dignity program. This decision is part of broader budget reductions and reflects our need to prioritize patient safety and other critical public health responsibilities.”
“Public safety” is served poorly by not allowing public scrutiny, but then the final report (for 2024) already involved what the authors themselves label “data suppression”. For example:
- We know that in 43% of cases, the time from ingestion to unconsciousness was either more than two hours or was unknown, but we don’t know the breakdown.
- We do know that the time from ingestion to death was more than two hours in 15% of cases and unknown in 28% of cases.
- Among documentation received by officials, the number of psychiatric evaluation forms was so small that it was suppressed.
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