In the article in italics below, which we found online at http://newportvermontdailyexpress.com/, Duncan Kilmartin, the brilliant trial lawyer who is also one of Orleans District Two’s two representatives in the Vermont House, discusses his opposition to the Oregon-style bill that was defeated in the Senate..
The online Newport Daily News article is a bit confusing. It is entitled “Reps Oppose Death Bill”. We presume that means that both representatives, Kilmartin and Michael Marcotte, oppose an Oregon-style bill, though the online article does not tell us whether the reps were both at the press conference. If anyone living in Orleans-2 has a subscription to the Newport Daily Express and can send us a copy of the full article from the paper or a report on the article that makes its contents a bit clearer, we would be most appreciative.
In the meantime, Orleans-2 residents, please thank Representative Kilmartin for his opposition to assisted suicide. Thank Representative Marcotte if he has also expressed opposition. If he has not, ask him to. We look forward to hearing from you about your interactions with these legislators.
Note Kilmartin’s reference to “outside money” as a factor in Orleans. A donation to Vermont Alliance for Ethical Health Care, no matter how small, would be a great help in countering that outside money. Send donations to:
Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare
P.O. Box 2145
South Burlington, VT 05407-2145
Here’s the article:
REPS OPPOSE DEATH BILL
February 25, 2013
By
CHRISTOPHER ROY
Rep. Duncan Kilmartin discusses the Death with Dignity bill at Monday’s Legislative Breakfast in Newport. Photo: Christopher Roy
NEWPORT CITY – Physician assisted suicide, known as the Death with Dignity Bill, continues to be a hot button issue in Vermont.
Rep. Duncan Kilmartin of Newport City said during Monday’s Legislative Breakfast that some lawmakers are calling the bill physician prescribed suicide, because physicians are ones who will give the “lethal cocktail.”
“Courageous, thoughtful people in the senate and the prayers of many defeated the forces and big money from outside Vermont who want to make doctors become partners to suicide with the blessing and intervention of the State of Vermont,” said Kilmartin said. “Make no mistake about it, the original bill was fueled by outside money, some of it landing right here in Orleans County.”
Kilmartin, who said he can’t predict what will happen in the House, said the bill that the Senate sent over preserves patient end of life choices and their privacy without the state telling the patients how to end their lives.
For more on this story, read Tuesday’s edition of the Newport Daily Express for Feb. 26, 2013.