Virginia slouches towards state-sanctioned Euthanasia

Virginia Democrats are pushing to decriminalize the suicide. What could happen next?

by Bronson Winning

Virginia Democrats have a bill on Governors Abigail Spanberger (D)’s desk, but the legislation will not stop there.

If Spanberger signs HB43 into legislation, this could open the door for a cultural transformation and legal change that Virginia might not be able to reverse. Next step: state-sanctioned suicide.

“HB 43 passed the General Assembly, and now awaits the Governor’s enactment.” This is the first step of a two-step procedure to legalize physician-assisted suicidal in Virginia by next year,” stated lawyer Tim Anderson. “Part 2 will be next year.” You might consider moving out of Virginia by next year if you’re old and your children don’t like to see you.

Learn from Canada

Canada legalized assisted dying in 2016 through its Medical Assistance in Dying program (MAID). In less than a decade, the program had resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

In 2024, more than 76,000 Canadians died of assisted suicide. Over 16,000 people have died by MAID in 2024. Assisted suicide now accounts about one in twenty deaths in Canada. By the end of 2026, it is expected that will reach 100 deaths.

To put things in perspective, Canada suffered 61,000 deaths during World War I. And 45,000 deaths during World War II. Over the past ten years, Canada has suffered more deaths from euthanasia than both world wars.

The assisted suicide system in Canada is aimed at vulnerable people. MAID is offered by the Canadian healthcare system. It is used by many who are disabled, without support and with mental health or poverty issues. MAID is responsible for 42 percent of deaths among people with disabilities.

Avoiding the slippery slope

The proponents of assisted death like to claim that safeguards create an ethical system where people can “die in dignity.”

There is no morality in killing.

No matter what the legal framework is, assisted suicide will continue to grow. In 2010, Canadian officials assured us that the MAID program would remain a highly restricted and limited practice. It has caused as many deaths today as two world wars, and has a number of policies that speed up death – even among those who are not ready to die.

In some cases, patients are able to obtain consent in just one day. The program’s supporters have tried to extend assisted suicide to people with serious health problems.

The system as a whole creates an inexpensive escape from hardship, and encourages the belief in society that lives are disposable. Suicide is now more dignified that overcoming hardship.

This also puts physicians in a difficult position, one that undermines the trust in medicine.

Both euthanasia as well as physician-assisted death would undermine the medical field by undermining patients’ trust in their doctors. Patients would not know if doctors are acting in the best interest of their patients if doctors engage in practices which harm them. Nicanor Pier Giovanni Austriaco wrote this in Beatitude and Biomedicine: An Introduction To Catholic Bioethics.

Protecting Virginia

Democrats are running wild in the legislature. Their radical agenda is unrestrained. From stripping of the gun rights for every Virginian to shieldingviolent aliens from justice, and protecting rapists against prosecution–they have no limits.

The campaign to legalize the suicide is just one step in a long and dark plan to normalize killing. Virginia cannot follow the path of Canada’s dystopia.

Bronson is an investigative researcher for Restoration News, specializing on gun rights and criminal law policy. He is a graduate of Virginia Military Institute. This column was republished by Restoration News with their permission.