BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – West Virginia voters will have the option this election to amend the state constitution. The state is seeking to ban medically assisted suicide.
In the West Virginia state legislative session this past March, the house voted overwhelmingly to amend Article 3 of the state constitution.
Amendment 1 on the ballot would ban the practice of medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, and mercy killing.
Other states such as Oregon permit medically assisted suicide for the sake of dignity.
Mary Tillman of the West Virginia Alliance for Ethical Healthcare says allowing the practice could cause suicide contagion, increasing the overall rate.
“Currently in the United States, no state has legalized euthanasia; there are ten states and Washington D.C. that have legalized physician-assisted suicide, but we wanted to do a preemptive strike that if they wanted to introduce euthanasia that would be forbidden,” said Tillman.
Medically assisted suicide is available …