On March 4, SB280 was heard in the House Committee on Courts of Justice, which decided, via voice vote, to carry the bill over to the next year. This is a polite way of ending the movement of the bill and we will work with our bill sponsors to refile the bill in January of 2025.
On February 13, 2024 HB858 was passed by for the day on the House floor and no further action was taken on the bill. The bill failed to pass in the House and is done for the 2024 year.
On January 23, 2024 the Senate Committee on Education and Health, subcommittee on Health held a public hearing on SB280. Compassion & Choices testified along with a number of advocates in support. The subcommittee voted reported the bill favorably to the Senate Committee on Education and Health.
On January 10, 2024, Senator Ghazala Hashmi filed SB280 and Delegate Patrick Hope filed HB858, mirror bills that, if passed, would allow a terminally ill, mentally capable adult resident of Virginia to request a prescription from their physician that they could take to bring about a peaceful death.
SB930 was introduced for the 2023 legislative session. On January 20, the Subcommittee on Health Professions heard testimony on the bill, followed by discussion and a vote to advance the bill. The vote failed, and the subcommittee did not advance the bill.
The Medical Society of Northern Virginia adopts a policy of engaged neutrality on medical aid in dying, becoming the second medical society to do so.
On January 12, 2022, longtime champion Delegate Kaye Kory introduced HB.1095: The Virginia Compassion & Choices Act and the Commonwealth completed impact statements. This is the third time Delegate Kory has filed end-of-life legislation following the 2018 study of medical aid in dying that Delegate Kory championed. HB.1095 was assigned to the House Committee on Courts for Justice and not assigned to a subcommittee. The bill did not move before crossover day on February 14 and did not advance.
On January 21, 2022, Senator Ghazala Hashmi introduced SB.668: The Virginia Death with Dignity Act and the Commonwealth completed the impact statement. The bill was reassigned to the Senate Committee on Education and Health, and a hearing was held on February 3. Compassion & Choices volunteers testified live (virtually) in support of the bill, and a number of other volunteers submitted statements of support. While the bill did not advance out of committee, we made incredible progress, as this is the first time a bill has been introduced in the Senate and the first time an end-of-life options bill has received a hearing in Virginia.
A medical aid-in-dying bill was reintroduced in the House for the 2020 legislative session by Delegate Kaye Kory. It was referred to Committee for Courts of Justice but the House took no further action. Compassion & Choices held a successful lobby day in Richmond on January 29, 2020, with over 50 of activists and several media outlets in attendance. Compassion & Choices supporters and staff on the ground want to extend our gratitude to Delegate Kaye Kory for reintroducing this important legislation and speaking with us.
Delegate Kaye Kory introduced the Death With Dignity Act in January 2019. HB 2713 did not advance during the 2019 legislative session.
In 2018, the Virginia Joint Commission on Health Care (JCHC), a standing committee of the Virginia General Assembly, released a report on medical aid in dying. Compassion and Choices submitted comments to the report and the Commission will vote on the recommendations in the report in November.
The report details a comparison of the current medical aid in dying statutes, implementation and access in the authorized states as well as key areas of disagreement among the work group stakeholders. Compassion & Choices staff and volunteers participated as key stakeholders. Read the full report here. Read news coverage here.
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