PUSHING FOR PASSAGE — Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, speaks before a group of about 30 individuals Tuesday at Weirton Madonna High School, promoting the passage of Amendment 1. If passed by voters, Amendment 1 would enshrine into the state’s constitution a prohibition of medically assisted suicide, euthanasia or mercy killings. -- Craig Howell

WEIRTON — Two weeks before the Nov. 5 election, one local legislator is speaking on why he feels it is important for West Virginia voters to approve Amendment 1.

If approved by voters, Amendment 1, also known as the Protection of Persons Against Medically Assisted Suicide amendment, would modify the West Virginia Constitution to include prohibitions of medically assisted suicide procedures being performed in the state. Such change, if enacted, would be listed under Article III, Section 23 of the Constitution.

Medically assisted suicide currently is not legal under West Virginia law, but Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, said passage of Amendment 1 will make certain it never is.

“The citizens of West Virginia have a chance to light a beacon,” McGeehan said, speaking before a group of approximately 30 individuals in the gymnasium of Weirton Madonna High School Tuesday evening. “The despair of suicide will be rebuked in West Virginia’s Constitution.”

McGeehan, who teaches history and civics at the school, was among the co-sponsors of House Joint Resolution 28, introduced and passed by the Legislature during the regular 2024 session, establishing the proposed amendment. It received a vote of 28-4 in the Senate and 88-10 in the House of Delegates.

The language of the amendment will stipulate that “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. 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, so long as the intention is not to kill the patient.”

McGeehan claimed many of those who turn to medically assisted suicide do so out of feelings of a lack of hope or believing they are a burden to others, likening it to feelings of being bullied into the decision.

“We don’t do that here. We’re not like that,” McGeehan said. “Passing Amendment 1 will make that clear.”

McGeehan was joined by Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Canada, who discussed a variety of cases of medically assisted suicide in Canada, as well as Oregon and some other states where it is legal.

“This is a threat to all of us because we are human beings,” he said, pointing to cases where people making such a decision are going through difficult periods of their lives and dealing with fear, a loss of hope or loneliness. “These are the underlying reasons.”

Currently, such practice is legal in 10 states – California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Maine, New Jersey, Hawaii, Montana, and Washington – as well as Washington, D.C. Schadenberg, though, expressed concern that once a state makes it legal, those laws will expand to allow medically assisted death procedures to be available for more and more conditions. Further, he said it shouldn’t be a political battle.

“This is not a right or a left issue. It’s about killing,” he said.