The ban on assisted suicide is leading in West Virginia

Washington, DC Newsroom, November 6, 2024 / 10:45 am

With 95% of the vote at 4:00 PM ET on Wednesday, the attempt to add a constitutional amendment was made change in West Virginia, the ban on “medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, (and) mercy killing” was on its way to passage with the support of 50.4% of the voters of the Mountain State.

The amendment to the state constitution’s Bill of Rights, entitled “Protection against medically assisted suicide”, would discourage individuals, physicians and healthcare providers from participating in the practice.

The amendment clarifies that the ban does not prohibit “the administration or prescription of medications for the purpose of relieving pain or discomfort while the patient’s condition follows its natural course; nor does anything in this section prohibit withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, as requested by the patient or the patient’s decision maker, in accordance with State law,” nor prevent the State’s application of the death penalty.

Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston was vocal in support of the measure, writing in a statement that “suicide, even when done for altruistic reasons, is a rejection of our place in the human community because we choose to leave it before we have to.”

In his statement, Brennan pointed out that medically assisted suicide “corrupts the medical profession” and that “many of the reasons that lead people to seek the help of medical professionals to end their lives involve non-lethal resources can be resolved.”

Moral theologian and Creighton University School of Medicine professor Charles Camosy praised the results Wednesday, noting in a message X that the measure was consistent with West Virginia’s “history of defending human dignity.”

West Virginia Congresswoman-elect Riley Moore, a Republican, also welcomed the vote. to report “West Virginia stands for life, and we proved that tonight. The passage of Amendment 1 will forever protect WV’s most vulnerable from medical killings.”

In a statement to CNA says Patient Rights Action Fund Executive Director Matt Vallière pointed out that while physician suicide is already illegal in West Virginia, “if the amendment ultimately gains majority support when all votes are counted, its addition to the state constitution would strengthen protections for people in the state to make.”

Vallière emphasized that “physician-assisted suicide is a dangerous policy that poses great risks to people with disabilities, older adults, and other historically underrepresented groups because they are often not treated equally, resulting in a two-tiered health care system.”

Vallière also pointed out that almost every state that has legalized assisted suicide has “over time relaxed the protections they originally claimed in support of adoption.” Some of those states now even allow elective medically assisted suicides “based on a non-fatal mental health diagnosis,” he added.

Assisted suicide is currently legal in the US states of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, as well as in the District of Columbia.

This story was updated on November 6, 2024 at 5:02 PM ET with updated voting results and the Patient Rights Action Fund statement.

Madalaine Elhabbal is a staff reporter for the Catholic News Agency, based in EWTN’s Washington, DC bureau. She has been published by CatholicVote and has also worked as a foreign language assistant in France. She graduated from Benedictine College.