Vermont changes law to allow out-of-staters to die using assisted suicide law

Vermont became the second state in the nation Tuesday to allow terminally ill people from other states to travel there to die by suicide while under medical care.

The medically assisted suicide law that’s been around for decades in the state dropped its residency requirement after Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill Tuesday.

Supporters of the law hailed the change though critics warned it could lead Vermont to become a “death tourism” spot.

Kim Callinan, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices, said in a statement that the non-profit was grateful Vermont lawmakers realized that “a state border shouldn’t determine if you die peacefully or in agony.”

“Patients routinely travel to other states to utilize the best healthcare options,” she added. “There is no rational reason they shouldn’t be able to travel to another state to access medical aid in dying if the state they live in doesn’t offer it.”

Opponents of the suicide law slammed it.

“To be clear, Vermont Right to Life opposed the underlying concept behind assisted suicide and opposes the move to remove the residency requirement as there are still no safeguards that protect vulnerable patients from coercion,” said Mary Hahn Beerworth, the executive director of the Vermont Right to Life Committee.

University of Massachusetts law professor Dwight Duncan told National Catholic Register in February dropping the residency rule could make Vermont a destination for death.

“And it opens up this idea of ‘death tourism’ — that you travel there as a place to be killed,” the law’s critic said. “It’s one thing to travel to Vermont because they have great ski slopes. It’s another thing to travel there because they have great undertakers.”

While Vermont is the first state to actually change the law to allow non-residents to end their life, Oregon previously agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement that allowed terminally ill people to receive lethal medication as part of a court settlement. It also agreed to ask lawmakers to scrap it from the law.

Vermont is one of ten states to allow medically assisted suicide.

Before the bill’s passage, the state had reached a settlement with a Connecticut woman who has terminal cancer that allowed her to take advantage of the law.

The woman, Lynda Bluestein, of Connecticut, and her doctor sued Vermont last summer, claiming the residency mandate violated the law.

She said Tuesday the change allows scores of other terminally ill people to die by suicide if they choose that path.

“I’m thinking even more importantly that this is going to cause other states, the other jurisdictions that have medical aid in dying, to look at their residency requirement, too,” Bluestein said.

With Post wires