Virginia Catholic Bishops Michael Burbidge and Barry Knestout urged members of the Commonwealth’s General Assembly this week against pursuing physician-assisted suicide bills moving through both chambers.
Shortly after taking control of both houses of the Virginia legislature earlier this year, Democrats filed bills that would allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients.
“Human life is sacred and must never be abandoned or discarded,” Burbidge of the Arlington Diocese and Knestout of the Richmond Diocese wrote in a Monday letter, imploring Virginians to contact their state delegates and senators.
“Every suicide is a tragedy,” the bishops continued. “Assisted suicide facilitates tragedies and makes the most vulnerable even more vulnerable. 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.”
Senate Bill 280 and House Bill 858, which appear to be identical, are attempts to revive similar bills rejected during the 2021 legislative session. The newer bills are slightly different, however, in that they allow doctors to prescribe terminally ill patients who have been given six months or fewer to live with a lethal drug that patients must administer themselves.
Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, a sponsor of the bill in the upper chamber, said the self-administration of the drug is a way for doctors to get around ethical concerns stemming from the Hippocratic Oath, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which requires them to “do no harm” when caring for patients.
Another requirement in the bill is that a medical provider must certify the patient is terminally ill and mentally competent to make the decision to end one’s own life — a provision Hashmi says could quell concerns about individuals suffering from depression abusing the system.
“It’s a difficult ethical and philosophical question, but I think when people hear more about what people go through, compassion will lead them to support this,” Hashmi said. “What I’ve heard from constituents is: ‘I don’t know what I would choose to do, but I would like to have the option.’”
The Republican House minority leader, Del. Todd Gilbert, came out against the bill, calling for social changes that are better alternatives to ending one’s own life.
“My heart goes out to people who find themselves in a situation where that seems like an alternative, but I think we as a society can do better for them,” Gilbert said.
Burbidge and Knestout pointed to insurance companies taking advantage of assisted suicide laws in states where the practice is already illegal, noting that “insurance companies have denied coverage for cancer treatment and other life-saving procedures but offered to pay for cheaper suicide drugs instead.”
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The bill was approved by the Senate Finances and Appropriations Health Subcommittee last week and is expected to pass a full committee vote as well.
“People facing the end of life are in great need, and must be accompanied with great care and attentiveness,” the bishops concluded. “To address each of their needs and alleviate their suffering, patients deserve high quality medical, palliative, and hospice care — not suicide drugs.”
