UPDATE: Assisted suicide ban holds lead in West Virginia

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 6, 2024 / 10:45 am

With 95% of the vote tabulated as of 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, the effort to add a constitutional amendment in West Virginia prohibiting “medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, [and] mercy killing” was headed toward passage with the support of 50.4% of the Mountain State’s voters. 

The amendment to the state constitution’s bill of rights, titled “Protection Against Medically Assisted Suicide,” would bar persons, physicians, and health care providers from participating in the practice. 

The amendment clarifies that the ban does not prohibit “the administration or prescription of medication for the purpose of alleviating pain or discomfort while the patient’s condition follows its natural course; nor does anything in this section prohibit the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment, as requested by the patient or the patient’s decision-maker, in accordance with state law” nor does it prevent the state’s use of capital punishment.

Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston was vociferous in support of the measure, writing in a statement that “suicide, even if 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 choose the help of medical personnel to end their lives can be met by nonlethal means.”

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

West Virginia Congressman-elect Riley Moore, a Republican, also welcomed the vote, stating  “West Virginia stands for life, and we proved it tonight. The passage of Amendment 1 will protect WV’s most vulnerable from medical killing — forever.”

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

Vallière emphasized that “physician assisted suicide is a dangerous policy that creates great risk for 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 “loosened over time what protections they originaly claimed in supporting adoption.” Some of those states now even allow elective medically assisted suicides “based on nonfatal mental health diagnosis,” he added. 

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

This story was updated on Nov. 6, 2024, at 5:02 p.m. ET with updated vote results as well as the statement from Patients Rights Action Fund.