West Virginia Wants to Prohibit Euthanasia in Its State Constitution: ‘We Want to Send a Message’
In the summer of 2016, Canada legalized euthanasia, also known as a medical assistance in dying (MAID) law. The current policy states only those with “a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability” is eligible to die by assisted suicide. However, by 2027, the country plans to allow people with mental illness to choose death as well. Some groups, such as Death with Dignity, see euthanasia as “a good death.” But a ballot initiative in West Virginia is attempting to keep the practice illegal.
Amendment 1 has recently been added to the state’s November ballot with the intention of providing “protection against medically assisted suicide.” Ultimately, “the amendment just places what’s already illegal in West Virginia into the state constitution for more security going forward,” said Pat McGeehan (R), a West Virginia state delegate, on Tuesday’s episode of “Washington Watch.” If this amendment is passed, West Virginia would become the first state to amend their constitution to prohibit assisted suicide.
The amendment states:
“No person, physician, or health care provider in the State of West Virginia shall participate in the practice of medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing of a person. Nothing in this section prohibits the administration or prescription of medication for the purpose of alleviating pain or discomfort while the patient’s condition follows its natural course; nor does anything in this section prohibit the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment, as requested by the patient or the patient’s decision-maker, in accordance with State law. Further, nothing in this section prevents the State from providing capital punishment.”
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Even though assisted suicide is “implicitly illegal in West Virginia,” McGeehan stated, “we want to send a message against this sort of nihilistic euthanasia movement sweeping the Western world.” And to fight against it properly, “You need to have it in the state constitution, because laws are not simply prescriptive, they’re also pedagogical. They teach people.” It’s McGeehan’s goal for West Virginia to become “the gold standard” in this push against euthanasia.
McGeehan referred to Canada’s MAID program as “just a fancy way of saying they’re killing their own citizens in Canada,” and he noted that it’s “horrific” that the practice is the “fifth leading cause of death” in the country. But Canada is far from the only proponent of euthanasia. In the U.S., “[T]en states have legalized euthanasia in one form or another.” Some states, such as Oregon and Vermont, have actually “opened up their euthanasia programs to not just their state residents, but to non-residents,” McGeehan explained. This, he added, has led to a “sort of euthanasia tourism,” which has “essentially grown into a whole marketplace for non-residents coming in to kill themselves.”
Some states have gone as far as to offer lodging such as hotels and Airbnb rentals for people coming into the area to die. As McGeehan put it, “Really, they’re death hotels [and] death Airbnbs.” The euthanasia process has become so streamlined, he added, that it’s “just like [receiving] any other medication.” He explained, “They give you a cocktail of poisons,” and then “you go back by yourself into one of these hotels [and] swallow the cocktail poison, it destroys your organs,” and then “social workers actually come by the next day [to] collect all the bodies in these hotels and burn them.” McGeehan shook his head. “We’ve got to push back against this. This is just part of a broader trend of nihilism that’s sweeping our country with the progressive liberal order. And I’m sick of it.”
As guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice asked, “[W]hat do you say to those who argue that your state, West Virginia, already has a code that prevents medically assisted suicide?” McGeehan replied that “most people don’t even know [if] it’s illegal or legal.” This, he emphasized, is part of why it’s important to have it firmly stated in the constitution. And as he pointed out, “[Y]ou never know who’s going to be in office next.” It could be that in years to come, “It might not be guys that are pro-life on the Republican side.” And so, to allow government officials to decide “which suicides are good and which are bad” gives them “enormous power.”
Additionally, “It … leads to arbitrary decisions on where you draw the line, and that just has devastating consequences for individuals in our society,” McGeehan contended. “[T]he progressive liberal order likes to reduce morality to just consent, and every relationship somehow has a sort of egalitarian, equal notion to it.” And since “doctors have an enormous power of authority in our society,” it becomes clear the “doctor-patient power relationship is extremely, extremely imbalanced.” McGeehan further argued that if assisted suicide is boiled down to consent and consent only, then all it takes is for a doctor to suggest euthanasia to “vulnerable patients” to blur the lines between choices made voluntarily and those made through persuasion.
Hice agreed, adding that “the argument of so-called ‘death with dignity’” has a “sort of appeal for compassion.” How should believers respond, Hice asked? McGeehan emphasized that it’s important to understand that this is “twisting the right order definition of compassion, and it preys on a lot of the pro-life movement within our own sort of ranks.” For instance, this same concept of dying with “dignity” has been applied to “the unborn child,” with people such as actress Anne Hathaway who said “abortion can be another word for mercy.” McGeehan made it clear that this is simply those in opposition “preying on that compassion that [pro-lifers] already hold” by “trying to twist it and pervert it.”
McGeehan closed by insisting that “this can be an argument that people need to take into consideration if they’re secular or if they’re atheists or nonbelievers,” because it can have enormous societal impacts. Beyond the biblical reality that each human being is made in the image of God, saying that euthanasia is an act of “dignity” or “mercy” could lead to “insurance companies [denying] coverage for expensive treatments like cancer care just to cover suicide.” And the reality is, he concluded, “[T]his is already happening,” but it’s not too late to fight against it.
LifeNews Note: Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand, where this originally appeared.
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