RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A bill to allow terminally ill patients to ask for physician-assisted death, or “medical aid in dying,” failed to pass a House committee on Monday, meaning it won’t become law in 2024.
The House Courts of Justice Committee agreed to continue Senate Bill 280 to 2025, ending its chances of final passage in this year’s session.
The bill would have allowed Virginians with “incurable and irreversible diseases” to seek medical aid in dying as a form of end-of-life care, should they qualify and complete the necessary steps.
“This legislation is about alleviating or ending the suffering for terminally ill people,” the bill’s patron, Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) told her colleagues on the Senate Floor last month. “This legislation would allow an eligible individual the autonomy to decide when their suffering is too great.”
If the bill was passed and signed into law by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, doctors would have been allowed to prescribe self-administered medication to qualified patients. Among other necessary steps, patients would need to request the drug twice verbally and once in writing before a doctor prescribes a drug.
Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Fairfax) recently read a letter in support of the bill from Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton, who’s battling Progressive Supranuclear Palsy — a disease she called “Parkinson’s on steroids.”
“It [The bill] is a vital step toward allowing Virginians to gain the dignity, freedom and peace of mind we deserve in the fact of a tragic terminal illness like mine,” her letter read.
However, some opponents said they’re glad the bill was killed because it’s not good public policy.
“Once assisted suicide — which eventually expands to active euthanasia — becomes healthcare policy for doctors and insurance companies alike motivated by profit, it becomes an equal choice to robust healthcare,” Ian McIntosh of Patients Rights Action Fund told 8News.
An identical House version of the bill also failed to secure final passage before crossover, meaning there is no avenue for the legalization of medical aid in dying to become law in 2024.
