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Vermont eliminates all safeguards in its updated “aid in dying” law

Apr 29, 2022

By Dave Andrusko

“Gov. Phil Scott signed S.74 into law Wednesday, amending Vermont’s medical-aid-in-dying statute. Advocates for the changes said S.74 would make the medical-aid-in-dying process more accessible for terminally ill VermontersRiley Robinson.

Let’s give Robinson credit for offering the background to Vermont’s medical-aid-in-dying law and explaining why all the safeguards needed to be removed to make it “accessible.”

In a nutshell, according to Robinson,

Vermont’s medical-aid-in-dying law has been in effect since 2013. It set up a multi-step process to request a life-ending prescription for any patient with a prognosis of six months or less to live.

Under the original law, the patient had to make two in-person requests to a prescribing physician, visit another consulting physician in person and submit a written request.

After all these steps were completed, the patient had to wait an additional 48 hours to obtain a prescription.

With S.74, patients will now be able to request the prescription using telemedicine. S.74 also got rid of the final 48-hour waiting period.

That’s convenient. Someone can just dial up a lethal prescription. No more in-person visits; no more second physician involvement; no more submitting your request in writing; and, best of all, away with a 48 hour waiting period.

And the law that Gov. Scott signed

adds explicit legal immunity for all licensed health care workers involved in the process, including the pharmacist who fills the prescription.

Mary Beerworth is Vermont Right to Life’s Executive Director. She explained how the “pro-abortion, pro-suicide majorities of the Vermont House and Senate ignored the testimony provided by medical providers as well as lobbyists for the Vermont Right to Life Committee.”

“The testimony pointed out the experimental nature of the multiple drug cocktail and urged caution of over prescribing a lethal dose over the telephone,” she said. “The in-person consultation was an opportunity for health care providers to be certain that their patient was not under coercion or pressure to end their lives for the convenience of others.”

Robinson, in his story, did acknowledge some apprehension. “As the bill progressed from the Senate into the House, some lawmakers expressed discomfort with patients going through the request process entirely over telemedicine.” The bill passed 98-41.

Beerworth told me, “We are grateful to Representative Anne Donahue for offering an amendment on the House floor that would require some kind of in-person interaction with a health care provider before obtaining the lethal dose. While the amendment failed to pass, it provided an opportunity to increase awareness of the agenda to remove safeguards around assisted suicide in Vermont.”

Categories: State Legislation
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