HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to help strengthen laws that protect people with disabilities from assisted suicide, saying “we can’t be a moral society” with these laws in place.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), called assisted suicide laws “abhorrent” during budget discussions this week.
During HHS budget discussions on Wednesday, Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, pressed Kennedy about assisted suicide, noting that in several states, disability groups have filed lawsuits saying that their assisted suicide laws are discriminatory.
“Disability groups are filing against some of the assisted suicide laws because it seems to target those with disabilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990: That act has worked to protect those with disabilities, not incentivize them to take their own life,” Lankford said.
“We’ve now seen a rise of people with eating disorders that are given access to assisted suicide, and this is just wrong a multitude of ways,” Lankford added.
“What is HHS doing to protect those with disabilities that may be targeted by those assisted suicide laws?” Lankford asked.
“To me, I think those laws are abhorrent,” Kennedy responded. “And we just see in
