WASHINGTON — Even in death, Barbara Green's fight to legalize medical aid in dying in Virginia, will continue.
In July of 2022, she was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Doctors told her she'd have eight to 11 months to live. She spoke to WUSA9 in 2023.
"One day I was perfectly well. The next day I was a cancer victim," she said.
At the time, she was pushing for lawmakers in the Commonwealth to pass legislation that would have allowed medically assisted death in Virginia.
"It's not that I want to be dead. I want to be alive. I'm doing this chemo because I want to stay alive. But if it gets to the situation where I can't eat, drink, and I'm just suffering -- why, why would I want to continue?" she said at the time.
In February 2024, she spoke with WUSA9 again as a bill had advanced in the Virginia Senate.
"It's a whole year later and here I am," she told WUSA9 with a smile on her face.
However, the bill once again did not pass.
In April she turned 80 years old, but her health began to decline.
"She didn't want it to get any worse. She was already suffering and could see what was coming," said Allison Green, Barbara's daughter.
Allison Green says her mom, a longtime resident of Northern Virginia, made the choice to move to Washington D.C., to become a resident of the District.
Medically assisted deaths are legal in 10 states and Washington, D.C.
"She was so angry that in the middle of dealing with a terminal illness and all that goes with that, she had to up and leave a home she'd lived in for decades. All because Virginia legislators haven't passed a bill making it legal that with the aid of a doctor, you do something that should be considered normal medical care for people who want it," said Allison Green.
She told WUSA9 that her mom had made it clear that she didn't want to suffer, especially after she lost her husband to cancer about 20 years ago.
"No one should have to die in agony. My father died of cancer 20-something years ago and it was not a pleasant death. My mom was terrified of dying in pain," said Allison Green.
Despite everything she was going through Allison says her mom never lost her sense of humor.
"She used to tell her dentist every time she showed up, if I don't come for my next appointment it's not because I'm ghosting you. it's because I'm dead," she said.
On Wednesday, Barbara Green passed away, surrounded by loved ones, and peacefully, her family said.
"We'd known for the last few days she had scheduled it for Wednesday morning," said her daughter.
"Everyone was able to talk to her and say the things that you want to be able to say, that sometimes you don't get a chance to say when someone dies unexpectedly. My sister and I were able to be there and hold her hands as she died," she explained.
She says her mom was an advocate up until the very end.
"It was really important to my mom to stand up for other people and in these last few weeks, she kept doing it. She was trying to advocate for changes in the hospice facility she was using. Those changes weren't going to benefit her. It was going to benefit other people and that's who my mom was," said Allison Green.
She said seeing that passion and fire in her mom has inspired her to continue the fight.
"After seeing it play out with her and seeing how important it was to her, we want to carry on that fight in her memory to honor her but also because we can see how important it is for terminally ill people to end their lives on their own terms without unnecessary suffering," said Allison Green.
Some Virginia lawmakers say they plan to reintroduce a 'Medical Aid in Dying' bill next year.
There are certain protocols in place:
- A patient must request orally on two occasions and in writing, signed by the patient and one witness, and that the patient be given an express opportunity to rescind his request at any time.
- The bill makes it a Class 2 felony to willfully and deliberately alter, forge, conceal, or destroy a patient's request, or rescission of request, for a self-administered controlled substance to end his life with the intent and effect of causing the patient's death; (ii) to coerce, intimidate, or exert undue influence on a patient to request a self-administered controlled substance for the purpose of ending his life or to destroy the patient's rescission of such request with the intent and effect of causing the patient's death; or (iii) to coerce, intimidate, or exert undue influence on a patient to forgo a self-administered controlled substance for the purpose of ending the patient's life.
- The bill also grants immunity from civil or criminal liability and professional disciplinary action to any person who complies with the provisions of the bill.
- Allows health care providers to refuse to participate in the provision of a self-administered controlled substance to a patient for the purpose of ending the patient's life.
However, there are some who do not think this is the way to handle end-of-life care.
Doctors have previously testified that the legislation is unethical. Dr. John Paul Verderese, an internal medicine physician in Northern Virginia, worries about what kind of precedence this would set.
“I think there's a hazard to passing this bill,” Verderese said. “I think the problem when you introduce physicians and other health care providers into this act, I think it creates a conflict. This will become a treatment that can be abused.”
Others like Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington also oppose this type of legislation.
“Assisted suicide facilitates tragedies and makes the most vulnerable even more vulnerable," Bishop Burbidge previously shared in a statement. "Legalizing it would place the lives of people with disabilities, people with mental illnesses, the elderly and those unable to afford healthcare - among others - at heightened risk of deadly harm.”