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Assisted Death Cases, Murder-Suicide Highlight Global Controversy

4/28/2026

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Summary

Story summary

Colorado prosecutors charged Kim Roller with manslaughter and evidence tampering for aiding her 91-year-old mother’s death outside the aid-in-dying law.
Los Angeles police said the deaths of Portland entrepreneur Mandy Zelinka and husband Jeremy Ferguson were a murder-suicide.
British patients Wendy Duffy and Anne Canning went to Switzerland’s Pegasos clinic and were assisted to die, prompting criticism of its family communication.

History

Historical Context

In 1997 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected a constitutional right to assisted suicide in Washington v. Glucksberg, building on a decade of lower-court battles that began with a 1979 Washington ban. That same year Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act, and today ten states maintain physician-assisted dying statutes, creating a patchwork that fuels ongoing prosecutions and legislative fights.

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Story summary

Colorado prosecutors charged Kim Roller with manslaughter and evidence tampering for aiding her 91-year-old mother’s death outside the aid-in-dying law.
Los Angeles police said the deaths of Portland entrepreneur Mandy Zelinka and husband Jeremy Ferguson were a murder-suicide.
British patients Wendy Duffy and Anne Canning went to Switzerland’s Pegasos clinic and were assisted to die, prompting criticism of its family communication.

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