On April 13, 2026, the Governor signed House Bill 43 into law as Chapter 785 of the 2026 Acts of Assembly. Codified at § 18.2-16.1 of the Code of Virginia (Code), the new law abolishes the common-law crime of suicide in Virginia, effective July 1, 2027. Virginia currently recognizes suicide as a common-law crime but prescribes no punishment for it. No federal law criminalizes suicide, and most states that once criminalized it no longer do.

The law further directs the Bureau of Insurance (Bureau) within the State Corporation Commission to “review the effect and implication of abolishing the common-law crime of suicide on insurance throughout the Commonwealth" and submit its findings and any recommendations by November 1, 2026, to the chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Courts of Justice.

After completing its review, the Bureau finds that abolishing the common-law crime of suicide should not change how Virginia’s life insurance, credit life insurance, or workers’ compensation laws treat suicide, because these laws do not depend on whether suicide is a crime. It will, however, remove the “illegal act" defense that defendants in some wrongful death actions now raise when the decedent was of sound mind. The Bureau anticipates that would have a negligible impact on liability insurance rates because other defenses and immunities remain available.