Virginia Senate Committee Defeats Dangerous Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide

The Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee voted 8-7 yesterday to reject a bill that would have legalized assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, halting its progress after a narrow subcommittee approval earlier this week.

The measure, SB359, failed to advance from the full committee with two Democrats joining Republicans in opposition.

Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jennifer Boysko of Herndon, the bill would have allowed adults diagnosed with a terminal illness and six months or less to live to request a prescription for self-administered medication to end their lives.

The bill had advanced from a Senate Education and Health subcommittee on February 3 on a 3-2 vote with one abstention, largely along party lines.

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Critics, including the Medical Society of Virginia—which recently shifted to oppose the bill after initially taking a neutral stance—warned that it could erode the patient-physician relationship and incentivize cost-cutting over care.

Thomas Eppes, a family physician and former president of the society, said the profession should “stand with patients from cradle to grave,” emphasizing that true aid in dying comes through hospice and palliative care.

Disability rights advocates echoed those concerns, highlighting risks in a health care system plagued by shortages and inequities.

Nichole Davis of the Virginia Association for Centers for Independent Living said the bill is “often framed as expanding choice, but choice is not real when the systems that make living possible are broken.”

Republican Sen. David Suetterlein of Roanoke County raised alarms about financial pressures, saying the measure could “incentivize the end of life through the worst form of capitalism,” pointing to potential influences from insurance companies.

Sen. Tara Durant, a Fredericksburg Republican, questioned the safeguards, citing issues with similar programs in Canada.

The AMA opposes physician-assisted suicide but allows doctors to follow their conscience.

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