Changes to Vermont Law Would Open Door to ‘Suicide Tourism,’ Critics Say

Every year, 13 million tourists visit Vermont to enjoy hiking, skiing, and — soon, maybe — dying.A new bill in the state legislature would end the residency requirement for those seeking to participate in the state’s Patient Control at the End of Life program. In Vermont, terminally ill patients can legally obtain and fill prescriptions for lethal doses of medication. Currently, only state residents are eligible to obtain prescriptions.“Removing Vermont’s residency requirement opens the state for suicide tourism by out-of-state residents,” a lawyer for Americans United for Life, Danielle Pimentel, warned in written testimony to the state house.The bill seeking to end the residency requirement is likely to pass Vermont’s state legislature, where supportive Democrats have a veto-proof supermajority. Since the passage of the original Patient Control at the End of Life Act in 2013, the legislature has approved multiple amendments that have eased restrictions on the program.Vermont is one of 10 states where physician-assisted suicide is legal. Should this law pass, it will follow Oregon as the second state to invite Americans from other states to obtain lethal prescriptions.Proponents of the law — such as Patient Choices Vermont — refer to the program as “medical aid in dying,” insisting that physician-assisted suicide implies the administration of a lethal injection by a medical professional. Others see it as a distinction without difference.The executive director of the Vermont Right to Life Committee, Mary Beerworth, sees the latest modification as a “stepping stone” to a euthanasia regime with “no safeguards.” She testified against the expansion of the bill before the legislature this week.“We have a serious rise in suicide among the general public,” Ms. Beerworth told the Sun. “So in the committee right next door to this one, they’re trying to figure out ways to reduce the suicide numbers, while we’re trying to figure out in the other committee how we can increase those numbers.”So far, the program is small. In a two-year period between July 2019 and June 2021, 29 persons filled out the paperwork to take advantage of the state’s offerings. Of the 29, about 60 percent died by taking the lethal prescription, and a third died from their terminal illnesses.Vermont’s population is just more than 645,000, so opening the program up to non-residents could dramatically increase the number of applicants for medical assistance in dying.The move to expand accessibility to Vermont’s program comes as Canada’s physician-assisted suicide regime is under increasing public scrutiny for hastening the deaths of those with non-terminal illnesses.A recent exposé in the New Atlantis found Canadians with non-terminal illnesses choosing to die because of debt, poverty, and loneliness. Now, Canada is in the process of implementing an expansion that would allow patients with diagnosed mental illnesses to elect physician-assisted suicide. Because of public outcry, the expansion, which was supposed to go into effect next month, has been delayed. Fewer than 30 percent of Canadians support the expansion of eligibility, according to a recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute.New York is considering its own medical aid in dying legislation — for the eighth year in a row. If it fails to pass yet again, New Yorkers may soon consider purchasing a one-way ticket on Amtrak’s Vermonter.

Changes to Vermont Law Would Open Door to ‘Suicide Tourism,’ Critics Say

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