Assisted Suicide Bill Passes

Shumlin

On May 20, 2013, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed S.77, an assisted suicide law, which creates legal paths of abuse and exploitation against persons who fall within its terms. 

Jackowski: Assisted Suicide Is Not the Answer

https://vtdigger.org/2013/05/20/jackowski-assisted-suicide-is-not-the-answer/

Editor's note, This op-ed is by Rosemarie Jackowski, an advocacy journalist and peace activist who is the author of "Banned in Vermont."

The “assisted suicide bill” does exactly what it is designed not to do. It will eliminate choice for the most vulnerable. Unintended consequences are sure to follow. We need more, not fewer rights. Government-approved suicide as an end-of-life option does not give more rights — in reality it takes them away.

"State can't oversee doctor assisted suicide"

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20111222/OPINION03/112220320/Letter-State-can-t-oversee-doctor-assisted-suicide

 

In a state where there are some 300-plus uninvestigated cases of abuse of the vulnerable, I simply cannot believe that Gov. Peter Shumlin, House Speaker Shap Smith and Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, can even contemplate pushing a bill to help the terminally ill kill themselves! Curiously they are pushing doctor-prescribed death in the name of "compassionate care."

A state government that is unable to investigate a known backlog of 300 reports of abuse and neglect of the elderly, the disabled, the sick -- and to prevent such abuse in the first place -- is demonstrably untrustworthy to safely implement doctor-prescribed death!

Pete Gummere

Law, not choice

http://www.cavalierdaily.com/2011/10/14/law-not-choice/
By Margaret Dore on October 14, 2011

I am an attorney in Washington state, where assisted suicide is legal. I am also president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide. Contrary to Alex Yahanda's article, "The grateful dead" (Oct. 13), assisted suicide is only legal in two states: Oregon and Washington. He also leaves off its multiple problems such as elder abuse.

Last March, I did a legal analysis of two assisted suicide bills that were pending in the Vermont legislature. I had previously analyzed two similar bills introduced in 2009. None of these bills assured patient choice.

To view my most recent analysis, go to http://www.choiceillusionvermont.org/p/2011-bills.html. To view my prior analysis, see "Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Recipe for Elder Abuse and the Illusion of Personal Choice," in the Winter 2011 edition of the Vermont Bar Journal, which is available at http://www.vtbar.org/Images/Journal/journalarticles/winter2011/PhysicianAssistedSuicide.pdf.

Margaret Dore
President, Choice is an Illusion

Assisted Suicide: A Recipe for Elder Abuse and the Illusion of Personal Choice

The original version of this article was published in The Vermont Bar Journal, Winter 2011.  

Bill Peace ("Bad Cripple") Center

By Margaret K. Dore, Esq.

Elders and people with disabilities

are, as a group, at a high risk for

violence, abuse, and exploitation.

- Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services [1]

Introduction

In 2009, a legislative proposal to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Vermont was introduced, but not brought to a vote.[2] The proposal was modeled on Oregon’s assisted suicide act.[3] Oregon is one of just two states where assisted suicide is legal. In Vermont, proponents have indicated that they will be backing a similar proposal in the 2011 legislative session.[4]

Physician-Assisted Suicide

The American Medical Association (AMA) defines physician-assisted suicide as follows: "Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act (e.g., the physician provides sleeping pills and information about the lethal dose, while aware that the patient may commit suicide)."[5]

The AMA rejects assisted suicide.[6] Assisted suicide is also opposed by disability rights groups such as the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and Not Dead Yet.[7]