Death with Dignity in Virginia: Current Law and Your Legal Options

If you're searching for medical aid in dying in Virginia, the short answer is that it's not available. The longer answer involves active legislative debate, a narrow subcommittee vote, and legal tools that give you meaningful control over end-of-life care even without an aid-in-dying law.

The Current Legal Status

Medical aid in dying — a process where a terminally ill patient receives a prescription for life-ending medication from a physician — remains illegal in Virginia. Physicians who participate in hastening a patient's death face criminal prosecution and professional disciplinary action.

Virginia considered a Medical Aid in Dying Act during the 2026 legislative session. Senate Bill 359 and House Bill 886 advanced through a close Senate subcommittee vote but ultimately failed to pass both chambers. Consideration was formally carried over to the 2027 session. Disability rights organizations, medical ethics groups, and palliative care advocates remain divided on the issue, making future passage uncertain.

As of 2026, 11 U.S. jurisdictions have authorized medical aid in dying — Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine, New Mexico, Montana (through court ruling), and the District of Columbia. Virginia is not among them.

What Virginia Law Does Allow

While you cannot obtain a prescription to end your life, Virginia law provides substantial legal tools for directing your end-of-life care:

The right to refuse any treatment. Under the Health Care Decisions Act, you can refuse life-prolonging procedures including mechanical ventilation, CPR, artificial nutrition and hydration, dialysis, and antibiotics for terminal infections. This is an absolute right — no physician, family member, or court can override your informed refusal while you have decision-making capacity.

Pain medication beyond standard limits. Your advance directive can explicitly authorize healthcare providers to administer pain-relieving medications in dosages exceeding standard recommended limits, even if such treatment carries a risk of addiction or of inadvertently hastening death. This is legally distinct from aid in dying — the intent is pain relief, not death — and Virginia law provides complete civil and criminal immunity to providers who act in good faith under this authorization.

Withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Through your advance directive, you can instruct your healthcare agent to withdraw ventilators, feeding tubes, and other life-sustaining interventions if you are in a terminal condition or persistent vegetative state. The Health Care Decisions Act immunizes providers who follow these instructions.

Comfort-only care directives. You can specify that once a terminal condition is determined, you want only comfort measures — palliative care focused on pain management and symptom control, with no curative or life-prolonging interventions.

The POLST Option for Terminally Ill Patients

If you have a terminal illness with a life expectancy under 12 months, a National POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) form gives you granular control over emergency treatment. Unlike an advance directive, a POLST is a physician's order that EMS personnel and emergency departments must follow immediately.

The POLST lets you specify whether you want CPR, the level of medical intervention you want (comfort only, limited additional interventions, or full treatment), and whether you want artificial nutrition. Combined with a Durable DNR order, the POLST ensures that your treatment preferences are honored in every setting — home, ambulance, emergency room, and hospital.

Building the Strongest Legal Position

Because medical aid in dying is unavailable in Virginia, individuals seeking maximum end-of-life autonomy need to build a comprehensive directive strategy: an advance directive with explicit refusal-of-treatment instructions and pain medication authorization, a POLST for terminally ill patients, a DDNR to prevent unwanted resuscitation outside hospitals, and registration with the ACPR so these documents are instantly accessible.

The Virginia Advance Directive & Living Will Kit walks through each of these instruments, shows how they interact, and covers the specialized clauses that give you the most control Virginia law allows. Get the complete toolkit to build the strongest legal framework for your end-of-life decisions.

See more Virginia guides →