We are Vermont citizens opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide in our state.
There is a current attempt to forward assisted suicide legislation in Vermont. Governor Peter Shumlin has promised to make legalization a priority *again*
in the 2013 legislative session. The state, moreover, faces budget shortfalls. A lethal dose of medication costs less than one hundred dollars. Hospice care costs thousands. Recognizing that our lawmakers face many pressures, we need to muster growing numbers of people to tell them that Vermonters want laws insuring the highest standard of care and rejecting the seemingly cheap option of assisted suicide.
We recognize that there is a time when treatment becomes torture rather than care, and we fully support the choice to decline treatment at such times. We support care aimed only at relieving pain, even when it requires the giving of medications that might shorten life. We are for laws that support care-giving, such as family leave laws, Medicaid and Medicare funding of hospice care, and laws providing for oversight of home health care, hospitals and nursing homes.
In 2007, an attempt to legalize assisted suicide in Vermont failed after legislators received large numbers of letters and phone calls opposing it. Your voice can make a difference!
In 2011-12 another attempt failed due to the vigilance of Vermonters in writing and supporting legislators to stand against the Physician Assisted Suicide Lobby.
By joining this website you will:
- Be alerted to times and ways to become active in opposing assisted suicide
- Be provided with information and means to write and call your representatives, expressing opposition to assisted suicide and support for the best in care
- Receive the latest information on the efforts to make assisted suicide legal in Vermont
- Be provided the latest information and facts on assisted suicide as practiced here in the US and around the world