February 23, 2024
Human life and its dignity are facing extreme and lethal challenges in Virginia, proving that election losses do carry sometimes deadly consequences. However, it’s not the preborn at risk now – but the living. According to reporting from The Daily Signal:
“Critics raised the alarm as the Virginia Senate passed a bill Friday that would legalize assisted suicide, otherwise known as “medical aid in dying.”
Based on the bill’s language, it would permit doctors to give their terminally ill patients a “self-administered controlled substance” to end their lives. The bill passed the Senate 21-19.
While supporters say the legislation offers a compassionate alternative to “lingering death” for those with terminal diagnoses, critics warn that such laws are ripe for abuse, as governments, health insurance companies, and even family members may pressure vulnerable people to end their lives prematurely to save money on medical expenses.
“Virginia’s bill SB280 offers no real protection for vulnerable patients,” The National Association of Pro-Life Nurses told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement. “Instead, it embraces a profit-driven industry that seeks to exploit patient suffering. This extreme, out-of-touch legislation erodes the trust of the healthcare profession.”
While it’s likely that Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin will veto the bill if it passes, it’s equally likely that it could be re-introduced again in the next governor’s administration, especially if a Democrat wins back the Governor’s mansion.
Virtually all legislation takes multiple cycles to become law, particularly in purple states. Now that Democratic lawmakers have taken a vote on advancing the legislation, it‘s unlikely they will drop it in subsequent legislative sessions.
Sadly, these assisted suicide laws aren’t new to America. According to the Catholic News Agency, 10 states allow assisted suicide, and 12 more are considering assisted suicide legislation.
Further north, what Canada is experiencing serves as a cautionary tale on the end state of these laws. Despite claims of stringent safeguards, Canada has grappled with the unintended consequences of its assisted suicide laws, according to Fox News. Reports indicate a shortage of doctors and psychiatrists capable of conducting thorough assessments, leading to instances where individuals without life-threatening illnesses are encouraged to consider suicide, according to Newsweek.
Ultimately, it can be argued that this culture of death doesn’t begin in a vacuum at the end of life when disease or suffering would be exploited by profit-seeking “medical” professionals. It begins in the womb, where once again, sadly, the pro-abortion industrial complex is making money off death. Because of Roe (before it was overturned), America has had a culture of death for decades, with over 63,000,000 million preborn baby deaths since 1973. Those deaths sadly continue to this day in other states that don’t have strong enough (or any) protections in place for preborn life.
Unless the assisted suicide bills get stopped in their tracks, even more people will tragically be killed.
