The mission of the disAbility Law Center of Virginia is to advance independence, choice, and self-determination; protect legal, human, and civil rights; and eliminate abuse, neglect, and discrimination of people with disabilities through zealous and uncompromising legal advocacy and representation.
The Virginia General Assembly has acted on one of the two bills that would allow for medical assistance in dying, colloquially known as Assisted Suicide.
The proposals would allow an adult diagnosed with a terminal condition to request and an attending health care provider to prescribe a self-administered controlled substance to end the patient’s life. There are precautions in the bills and protections from legal liability for a practitioner who assists or declines to assist. The bills make it a felony to coerce or influence a patient to end their life.
HB 858 (Hope) will be heard in the House Committee on Health and Human Services, probably this week. SB 280 (Hashmi) was amended but approved by the Senate Committee on Education and Health. It is now under consideration by the full Senate this week.
The debate on the Senate bill last week was very emotional. There are strongly held opinions on both sides of this question. dLCV is interested in hearing feedback from the community about this proposal. dLCV will try to represent the various perspectives of the community.
When this issue was being studied by the Joint Commission on Health Care in 2019, dLCV raised concerns that medical assistance in dying should not become an alternative resulting from a failure to provide adequate health care for people with complex disabilities. We also urged that if the option does become available, people with disabilities not be excluded from the option solely because of their disability. To the extent possible, these concerns appear to have been addressed in the proposed legislation.
All bills for 2024 have now been submitted and all but a few are available online. If you know of something going on in the legislature that you think we should know about, please let us know. Contact us at ga@dlcv.org or info@dlcv.org or by calling 1-800-552-3962 or 1-804-225-2042.