Posted on 11/04/2024 8:50:58 AM PST by Morgana
This election season, voters in West Virginia will consider a constitutional amendment to ban physician-assisted suicide.
Joint Resolution 28, which passed 88 to 10 with similar margins in the state senate, will ask voters on November 5th whether to amend the state constitution to make physician-assisted suicide illegal.
According to the text of the proposed Amendment 1, “No physician or health care provider in the State of West Virginia shall participate in the practice of medically-assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing.” The amendment goes on to protect palliative care and other normal end-of-life care, while being explicit about assisted suicide. Should the measure pass, it would make West Virginia the first state to prohibit assisted suicide via constitutional amendment.
Pro-life lawmakers lauded the measure as essential to protecting the rights of all West Virginians.
“It’s to help protect some of the most vulnerable people in our state. Those are individuals who have illnesses, that are going through a lot. And this will protect them from being encouraged to commit suicide,” bill co-sponsor Del. Chris Pritt told WOW-K TV.
Opponents of the measure argued it distracted West Virginia from advancing a pro-abortion agenda.
“Restoring reproductive freedom, we should be voting on that. But the Republicans won’t let us vote on it because they know what the outcome will be, just like in every other state. So, instead, they put this meaningless Constitutional Amendment on that’s banning something that’s already banned,” Del. Mike Pushkin said.
Co-sponsor Pat McGeehan disagrees. “The amendment places what’s already illegal in West Virginia into the state constitution for more security going forward,” he told Washington Watch, “It’s implicitly illegal in West Virginia, but we want to send a message against this sort of nihilistic euthanasia movement sweeping the western world.”
Physician-assisted suicide has been implemented in recent years in countries like Belgium, Australia, Spain, The Netherlands, and Canada – to name just a few examples. In almost all cases, the slippery slope of assisted suicide expands to threaten the most vulnerable in society. In Canada, an August report revealed that “medical aid in dying” or MAiD was the fifth most frequent cause of death in 2022. Assisted suicide is also legal in 10 U.S. states, including California, the District of Columbia, and Oregon —where assisted suicides are up 21% from 2022.
McGeehan also expressed concern about the power imbalance between doctors and patients when it comes to physician-assisted suicide. “Doctors hold significant authority in our society, and their suggestion of assisted suicide can heavily influence vulnerable patients and makes it hard to ensure that such a decision is ever truly voluntary to begin with,” he said in an interview with EWTN’s Pro-life Weekly.
Live Action News has previously reported how patients can feel pressured into abortions by doctors, especially after a positive screening for Down syndrome. Likewise, adults with conditions like spina bifida have been urged to end their lives. In Canada, where requests to die must be patient-driven, reports of patients being badgered to consider euthanasia have come to light.
In any case, McGeehan told CNA that taking the question away from lawmakers and enshrining the right to a natural death in the state’s constitution is a question of protecting fundamental human rights from the threat of abuse.
“We cannot place decisions between who should die and who should not in the hands of politicians today… [That] places an enormous power in the hands of government officials, and it leads to arbitrary decisions that can have devastating consequences for our society.”
The issue is informed consent. Libertarian. Suicide should be legal as long as someone else doesn’t have to clean up the mess.
Already voted FOR Amendment 1.
There are a lot of abortion “doctors” out there who only do it for the fun of it or to make a political statement. Same thing is going to happen with these suicide “assistants.” Just a bunch of freaky creeps who like to watch people die and take part in the killing.
Doctors hate suicide. They make a fortune off keeping old dying people alive for a few more pointless years.
Just look at what happened every other place it is allowed.
It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along.
Tim Poole had a segment on this and said the wording was extremely confusing.
**The argument isn’t against suicide, it’s against the medical profession being officially involved. Because that also means the government.**
True but someone has to provide the fatal pills. Injections-I sat no.
The baby boomers are between ages 60-78. A lot of them facing that dilemma.
There’s an important reason to keep it illegal. A “right” to die by suicide immediately will morph into a DUTY to do so.
Assisted suicide as an option is immediately exploited by the medical industry, by government, by greedy heirs against someone terminally ill.
When it’s an option those not taking it will be guilted out for “wasting precious medical resources”. The more socialized our medical system is, the more this will be true. In Canada since it was legalized in 2016, by 2022 over 44,000 have been killed. Many for mere depression. It is continually pushed as an option.
And when grandpa wants to see who wins the next election, enjoy another Christmas, etc... heirs who know he could go down and get suicided will resent him spending “their” inheritance and they will grow cold, if not outright hostile.
A right to die, becomes a duty to die. So even though we do not prosecute failed attempts. We should keep it illegal.
Maybe the effort should be poured into compassion for them, relieving their pain, and being there for them. Give them magic mushrooms so they can trip out and have some fun, whatever.
If they want to check out, do the decent thing and save up your pain pills and have a wine party one night, or stick your head in the oven.
But no .... no legalizing it.
Remember Logan’s Run? “Carousel! Carousel! Carousel!”
How soon we forget.
“Doctors hate suicide. They make a fortune off keeping old dying people alive for a few more pointless years.”
Years YOU are deciding are pointless. And you are very out of touch with the zeitgeist among today’s doctors. They do not see healthcare as a product they sell to paying customers. They widely view healthcare as a communal resource to be doled out as THEY, the wise guardians, decide.
They view healthcare the way a communist country hands out rice. They have a hoard, and they make the decisions about distribution. They take smug pride in telling people no and quickly moving them onto a hospice track.
Yep! Logan’s Run!
This should be an individual decision, or something decided by those advocating for that person.
.....This election season, voters in West Virginia will consider a constitutional amendment to ban physician-assisted suicide......
Good! Ban it!
Should be banned nationwide!
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