The Virginia Senate narrowly passed a bill on Friday that would legalize assisted suicide in the commonwealth, with one Republican joining the chamber’s Democrats to pass the legislation in a narrow victory.
SB 280, introduced by Senator Ghazala Hashmi (D-Richmond), would allow any Virginia citizen who is diagnosed with a terminal disease to “request” a doctor to “prescribe a self-administered controlled substance for the purpose of ending the patient’s life,” according to a summary of the bill.
In a bid to prevent legal assisted suicide from being abused, the bill would require patients to orally request to die on two separate occasions, plus in writing, over a period of weeks.
The legislation would grant immunity to healthcare providers who provide lethal doses of controlled substances to patients under the procedures for assisted suicide outlined in the bill, but would also make it a Class 2 felony to “alter, forge, conceal, or destroy a patient’s request, or rescission of request” to end their life.
Under the bill, the ability to offer patients assisted suicide is not limited to medical doctors, but instead the “attending health care provider,” which could be physician, a physician’s assistant, or a nurse practitioner.
While other bills have aimed to enact legal assisted suicide in Virginia, this is the first bill to pass the Senate after Senator Bill Stanley (R-Moneta) joined Democrats with his vote.
The most recent defeat for such legislation in the Virginia Senate came last year, when former State Senator John Edwards broke with Democrats and joined Republicans to defeat the bill, which was similarly introduced by Hashmi.
SB 280 is now referred to the House of Delegates for further review, though HB 858, a separate version of the bill, was defeated in the House on February 13.
Both bills prompted a call to action from two Virginia bishops earlier in February, when Bishop Michael Burbridge of Arlington and Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond explained they were “alarmed and deeply saddened” as “life is sacred and must never be abandoned or discarded” before calling Catholics in the commonwealth to contact their legislators to voice disapproval.
“Legalizing it would place the lives of people with disabilities, people with mental illnesses, the elderly, and those unable to afford healthcare – among others – at heightened risk of deadly harm,” the bishops warned in their letter, which was distributed by the Virginia Catholic Conference on February 9.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “State Senator Ghazala Hshmi” by State Senator Ghazala Hasmi.
