Of Madalaine Elhabbal

Press room in Washington, DC, November 6, 2024 / 10:45 am

With 90% of votes tallied as of 9 a.m. ET Wednesday, the effort to add a amendment in West Virginia, a ban on “medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, and (and) mercy killing” was headed for passage with the support of 50.5 percent of Mountain State voters.

Amendment of the Charter of Rights in the State Constitution, entitled “Protection against medically assisted suicide“, would prohibit individuals, physicians, and health care providers from participating in the practice.

The amendment clarifies that the ban does not prohibit “the administration or prescription of drugs for the purpose of alleviating pain or discomfort while the patient’s condition runs its natural course; nor does anything in this section prohibit the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment as requested by the patient or the patient’s decision-maker in accordance with state law” or prevent the state from imposing the death penalty.

Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston loudly supported the measure, writing in a statement that “suicide, even if done for altruistic reasons, is a rejection of our place in the human community, because we choose to leave it before it is needed.”

In his statement, Brennan stressed that medically assisted suicide “corrupts the medical profession” and that “many of the reasons that lead people to choose the help of medical personnel to end their lives can be accomplished by non-lethal means.”

Moral theologian and Creighton University School of Medicine professor Charles Camosy presented the findings Wednesday, noting in a post about X that the measure was consistent with West Virginia’s “history of defending human dignity.”

West Virginia Congressman Riley Moore, a Republican, also welcomed the vote, stating “West Virginia represents life and we proved it tonight. Passing Amendment 1 will protect WV’s most vulnerable from medical killing – forever.”

Assisted suicide is currently legal in the US states of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.

Madalaine Elhabbal is a staff reporter for the Catholic News Agency based in EWTN’s Washington, DC bureau. She has been published by CatholicVote and has also worked as a language assistant in France. She is a graduate of Benedictine College.