SB 610: "Georgia Death and Dignity Act"; enact

Georgia currently has no law allowing physicians to prescribe medication for a terminally ill person to end their own life. This bill, titled the Georgia Death with Dignity Act, would add a new chapter to Title 31 of Georgia's health code creating that option. An adult Georgia resident diagnosed with a terminal illness and a prognosis of six months or less, who is mentally capable and acting voluntarily, could ask an attending physician for medical aid-in-dying medication. The process requires two oral requests three days apart, a written request signed and witnessed by two people, confirmation by a second consulting physician, and a mental health evaluation if capacity is in doubt. The person must self-administer the medication; no one else may do it for them. The bill sets criminal penalties for forging a request or coercing someone into one, protects participating and non-participating healthcare providers from liability or discipline, and lets healthcare facilities set their own participation policies. The Department of Public Health would review records for compliance but keep them confidential.

• Creates a new legal process letting terminally ill Georgia adults with a prognosis of six months or less request a prescription to end their life.
• Requires two oral requests spaced at least three days apart plus a signed, two-witness written request before a physician may prescribe the medication.
• Requires a second, consulting physician to confirm the diagnosis, prognosis, and the person's mental capacity to decide.
• Creates felony penalties, punishable by one to five years in prison, for forging a request or coercing a terminally ill person into requesting the medication.
• Shields physicians and healthcare providers who participate in good faith from civil, criminal, or licensing consequences, while letting facilities and providers opt out.
• Requires the Department of Public Health to review a sample of records for compliance and publish an annual statistical report, while keeping individual records confidential.

Terminally ill adult Georgia residents and their families, attending and consulting physicians, psychiatrists and psychologists asked to assess mental capacity, pharmacists, hospice and healthcare facilities, insurers, and the Department of Public Health, which would oversee compliance records.

If enacted, terminally ill Georgians could legally obtain medication to end their life on their own terms, something not currently allowed under state law. The bill also sets new legal protections and duties for physicians, facilities, and insurers, and creates new felony penalties for coercion or forgery connected to these requests.

• O.C.G.A. § 31-55-2 limits eligibility to adult Georgia residents with a terminal illness, a six-month-or-less prognosis, and confirmed mental capacity who voluntarily request the medication.
• § 31-55-3 requires two oral requests at least three days apart and a written request signed and witnessed by two people, with limits on who can serve as a witness.
• § 31-55-6 and § 31-55-7 require a second consulting physician to confirm the diagnosis and capacity, and a licensed mental health professional evaluation if capacity is in doubt.
• § 31-55-8 states the death certificate must list the underlying terminal illness as cause of death and bars it from triggering a coroner's inquest.
• § 31-55-10 requires the attending physician to document each step and requires the Department of Public Health to review a sample of records annually while keeping them confidential.
• § 31-55-15 through § 31-55-17 protect healthcare providers acting in good faith from liability or discipline, while letting facilities and providers decline to participate.
• § 31-55-18 creates felony penalties of one to five years in prison for forging a request, destroying a rescission, or coercing a terminally ill person into requesting the medication.
• § 31-55-20 clarifies that actions under the chapter do not legally count as suicide, assisted suicide, homicide, or elder abuse under Title 16.

1. 2026-03-03Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2026-02-26Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Kim Jackson (D, SD-041)Primary sponsor
• Nan Orrock (D, SD-036)
• Harold Jones (D, SD-022)
• Sally Harrell (D, SD-040)
• RaShaun Kemp (D, SD-038)
• Michael Rhett (D, SD-033)
• Josh McLaurin (D, SD-014)
• Elena Parent (D, SD-044)

• medical aid in dying
• end-of-life care
• terminal illness
• physician assisted death
• health law