By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Democratic candidate for West Virginia Secretary of State believes the office is not following the clear language of state law and the state Constitution in how the office informed voters about a constitutional amendment on the ballot prohibiting assisted suicide.
Thornton Cooper, a South Charleston attorney who was unopposed in the Democratic primary for secretary of state, accused current Secretary of State Mac Warner of skirting the law by only publishing a summary about a proposed state constitutional amendment instead of publishing the full language of the amendment.
“This is the most important thing you do,” Cooper said. “How can you minimize how important that is to let people see when you’re changing the state Constitution? Those are the rules that are preeminent over all the other state rules. You don’t even let people see what they’re voting on.”
The West Virginia Legislature adopted House Joint Resolution 28 during the 2024 regular session earlier this year. The joint resolution placed on the November general election ballot a proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban medically-assisted suicide and/or euthanasia.
Amendment 1 would add language to the state Constitution prohibiting individuals, doctors, or other health care providers in West Virginia from participating in “assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing of a person.” The proposed amendment would not apply to the prescribing of medication to provide pain relief for dying individuals, withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments, or if the state reinstates the death penalty.
