ACTION ALERT!
We received the following Action Alert from VT Right to Life. The bill to remove virtually all “safeguards from assisted suicide in VT has advanced to the House. While we believe assistance in suicide can never be “safe”, we are concerned that the removal of these mild restrictions can make it more dangerous and embolden those whose ultimate goal is to make such assistance a “right” available to any person who expresses a wish to die.
Here is VT Right to Life’s Action Alert, which is fully supported by True Dignity. If you are a Vermont citizen, please contact your Representatives in the House, asking them to vote against S. 74. Please also contact the office of Governor Phil Scott, asking him to veto the bill if it reaches his desk. You don’t need to live in Vermont to do this. If this bill passes, it will affect everybody, not just Vermonters.
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S.74:
Removing Safeguards
For Assisted Suicide
Please contact your
House Representatives
and Governor Scott
S.74 has already passed the Vermont Senate.
S.74 is a Senate bill that was introduced in 2021. It’s purpose is to remove safeguards that were put in place when the assisted suicide bill, now known as Act 39, was passed in 2013. Those safeguards were put in place to ensure (to the best of it’s ability) that no one would be harmed by misuse of the Act 39.
S.74 proposes to do the following:
1) This bill proposes to eliminate a requirement in Vermont’s patient choice at end of life laws that both oral requests required of the patient with a terminal condition for medication to be self-administered to hasten the patient’s death must have been made in the physical presence of the physician to whom the patient made the request – allowing instead for this to take place via telemedicine.
2) It would eliminate a requirement that the prescribing physician have conducted a physical examination of the patient in order to determine that the patient was suffering a terminal condition
3) It would eliminate a requirement that the physician
must have waited at least 48 hours after the occurrence of certain required events before writing the prescription.
4) The bill would also provide immunity for any person who acts in good faith compliance with the provisions of Vermont’s patient choice at end of life laws.
Vermont Right to Life sees this effort of removing safeguards as the beginning of the anticipated “slippery slope.” We are concerned about the public dialogue that continues, as it relates to assisted suicide for children (under 18 years of age), for those suffering from anorexia or depression, for those who are cognitively impaired by Alzheimer’s or Dimentia and more.
We urge you to contact your House Representatives and Governor Scott today. Tell your representative(s) that you do not support S.74, and ask them to vote NO on this bill. And if this bill does pass the House ask Governor Scott to please veto it.
We thank you in advance for
your support in this matter. Vermont Right to Life
PO Box 1079, Montpelier, Vermont 05601
802-229-4885