Boldly displayed on a dry-erase board in Room 46 at the Vermont Statehouse, the meeting room for the House Human Services Committee, is a short list of principles the Committee has established to guide them as they consider legislation that affects Vermonters. The very first goal listed is: “Ensuring that vulnerable (Vermonters) are safe and protected.” After two … [Read more...] about Some Legislators Taking a “Hear-no-evil” Stance on Act 39
Classism and Assisted Suicide
Vermont’s New Eugenics Movement
Many Vermonters would be stunned to learn that some eighty years ago, our legislature passed a law enabling the sterilization of Vermonters who had been determined to be “undesirables,” people from targeted groups that included Abenakis and French Canadian immigrants. The 1931 sterilization law was designed to reduce the number of people seen as placing demands on public … [Read more...] about Vermont’s New Eugenics Movement
Privilege vs. Disability in the Assisted Suicide Debate
Several years ago, Patient Choices, the group that, with lots of money from Compassion and Choices and the support of Governor Peter Shumlin, later succeeded in getting assisted suicide made legal in Vermont, brought George Eighmey, veteran C&C activist and "support volunteer" at the bedsides of people committing assisted suicide, , to speak in Manchester, Vermont. Many of … [Read more...] about Privilege vs. Disability in the Assisted Suicide Debate
Brittany Maynard Didn’t Speak for “the Millenials”
During the Brittany Maynard publicity explosion, bioethicist Arthur Caplan wrote that young people, identifying with Maynard, would come out in droves to push the legalization of assisted suicide. There is, however, a cohort of young people reacting to the Maynard videos in exactly the opposite way, by expressing their strong opposition. Meghan Schrader, a thirty-two year … [Read more...] about Brittany Maynard Didn’t Speak for “the Millenials”