Michigan Assisted Suicide Laws, Penalties, and Defenses

Assisted suicide is a felony in Michigan. Two separate criminal statutes prohibit it, with prison terms of up to five years, and Michigan assisted suicide laws also reach conduct that goes beyond the physical act itself, including helping plan a suicide. At the same time, Michigan protects several end-of-life choices for terminally ill patients, including palliative care, hospice, refusing treatment, and advance directives.

The Two Statutes That Criminalize Assisted Suicide

Michigan prosecutes assisted suicide under two overlapping laws. The broader one, in the Michigan Penal Code, makes it a felony to know that another person intends to end their life and then intentionally provide the means, participate in the act, or help plan it.¹ That third category matters. It reaches logistics and coordination, not just the physical handoff of a lethal means.

A second, older statute covers anyone who knowingly and intentionally provides the physical means or participates in a physical act by which another person attempts or completes suicide.² This one is narrower because it doesn’t reach planning, only physical involvement.

On top of the statutes, the Michigan Supreme Court confirmed in People v. Kevorkian (1994) that assisting a suicide has long been a crime under Michigan common law, and prosecutors can charge it under the state’s saving clause where no specific statute applies.³ A person cannot be convicted under both the Penal Code statute and the common law for the same conduct.¹

Penalties

The Penal Code provision carries up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.¹ The older statute is lighter: up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.²

In some cases, prosecutors bypass the assisted-suicide statutes and file murder charges instead. The Michigan Supreme Court drew that line in Kevorkian: when there is probable cause to believe death was the “direct and natural result” of the defendant’s own act rather than the person’s own decision, a murder charge is appropriate.³ Handing someone a lethal substance that they then take on their own is assisted suicide. Administering a lethal injection directly can be murder. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 for administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old man with ALS, and sentenced to 10 to 25 years.⁴

What Prosecutors Must Prove

Two mental-state elements are required. The accused must have known that the other person intended to end their life, and the accused must have acted with the specific intent to help them do so.¹ Accidental involvement, general awareness of another person’s despair, or passive presence at the scene does not meet the standard. Someone who had no idea what the other person planned to do, or who provided something without any intent to facilitate a death, falls outside the statute.

Prosecutors also have to connect the accused’s actions to a concrete act of assistance: providing the means, participating physically, or helping with the plan. Verbal encouragement alone, with no tangible assistance, sits in a gray area these statutes weren’t designed to cover, though other charges might apply depending on circumstances.

Defenses and Statutory Exceptions

Lack of Knowledge or Intent

The most direct defense challenges the knowledge and intent elements. If the accused genuinely did not know the person intended to end their life, or if their actions served a different purpose, the statute’s requirements aren’t met. Most contested cases turn here. Showing that a defendant provided something for a legitimate reason, without awareness of how it would be used, can defeat the charge.

Palliative Care and Pain Management

Michigan law explicitly protects physicians and other healthcare providers who prescribe or administer medication to relieve pain, even if that medication might hasten death or increase the risk of death.² The key is intent: the purpose must be comfort, not causing death.

Michigan’s Dignified Death Act reinforces this. It requires physicians treating patients with a limited life expectancy to inform them of their right to choose palliative care, including hospice and pain management. A physician who prescribes a narcotic to manage pain for such a patient is immune from civil, criminal, and administrative liability.⁵

Withdrawing or Withholding Treatment

Both statutes state that they do not apply to withdrawing or withholding medical treatment.¹ A physician who honors a patient’s request to stop chemotherapy, disconnect a ventilator, or discontinue tube feeding is not committing a crime. The distinction between actively providing the means of death and respecting a patient’s refusal of treatment sits at the center of Michigan’s framework.

Legal End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients

Michigan prohibits assisted suicide, but terminally ill patients still have several legally protected choices about how their end-of-life care unfolds.

Advance Directives and Patient Advocates

Any competent adult in Michigan can designate a patient advocate to make medical decisions if they lose the ability to do so themselves. The designation has to be signed before two witnesses, and neither the advocate, a relative, an heir, nor any of the patient’s physicians or their employees can serve as a witness.⁶ The advocate cannot act until two physicians confirm the patient lacks decision-making capacity, and the advocate has to accept the role in writing before gaining any authority.

A patient advocate can refuse or stop life-sustaining treatment only if the patient specifically authorized that power in the designation document. Without that explicit grant, the advocate cannot make that decision. One restriction applies in every case: an advocate cannot authorize withdrawing treatment from a pregnant patient if doing so would result in the patient’s death.

Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders

Under Michigan’s Do-Not-Resuscitate Procedure Act, a patient can sign an order directing healthcare professionals not to attempt resuscitation after the patient’s heart and breathing stop.⁷ This is a straightforward way to ensure that extraordinary measures aren’t taken against a patient’s wishes.

Hospice, Refusing Treatment, and Stopping Eating and Drinking

Terminally ill patients have the right to choose hospice care, which focuses on comfort rather than cure. They also have the right to refuse any medical treatment, including treatments that might extend their life.⁷ Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking is also legally protected. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990) that a competent person has a constitutionally protected right to refuse lifesaving hydration and nutrition. It is a difficult path that requires medical support for comfort, but it is not a crime in any state.

How Michigan Compares to States That Allow Medical Aid in Dying

As of 2026, thirteen states and Washington, D.C. authorize some form of medical aid in dying for terminally ill patients. Oregon led the way in 1994, followed by Washington, Vermont, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, and more recently Delaware, Illinois, and New York. Those laws generally require the patient to be a competent adult with a terminal illness expected to cause death within six months, and the patient must self-administer the prescribed medication.⁸

Michigan has no such exception. A physician who prescribes a lethal dose for a terminally ill patient to self-administer faces the same felony charges as anyone else. Michigan Democrats have introduced bills in recent years to legalize medical aid in dying for terminally ill patients, and the national trend keeps the issue alive in Lansing. As of early 2026, none of those proposals have become law.

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws Section 750.329a
2
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws Section 752.1027
3
Justia Law. People v Kevorkian – 1994 – Michigan Supreme Court Decisions
4
National Center for Biotechnology Information. Dr Kevorkian Found Guilty of Second Degree Murder
5
State Bar of Michigan. End-of-Life Care Amendments of 2001
6
Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Health Care Rights of the Terminally Ill
7
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. End of Life
8
Oregon Health Authority. Oregon Code 127.800 – Oregon Death with Dignity Act