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Week 19/2015 in the Death with Dignity Movement

May 11, 2015

In the week from May 4 to May 10, 2015:

  • The Vermont House approved a bill that would remove sunset provisions from the Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act, the state’s Death with Dignity law. Because the representatives amended S.108 with a reporting clause, the Senate must approve the new version of the bill before Governor Shumlin signs it. Earlier, an amendment to repeal Act 39 was defeated 83 to 60. Representative Sandy Haas said in the media that seven patients have used the law since it passed in 2013.

Vermont

Elsewhere

  • Tennessee: Death with Dignity will be on a legislative committee’s agenda this summer. “Death with dignity to be discussed this summer by Tenn. legislative committee,” WKRN-TV (ABC Nashville), 5/5/2015
  • Delaware: Representative Baumbach will be filing a Death with Dignity bill this Thursday. “Bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide imminent,” Delaware Public Media, 5/6/2015
  • Maine: A hearing for LD1270 – Act Regarding Patient-Directed Care at the End of Life, a Death with Dignity bill, will take place this coming Friday. “A brief update about LD1270,” It’s My Death, 5/5/2015

Featured image by Dennis Skley.

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Afterword: Physician-Assisted Dying Concepts

Death with Dignity Act Pros and Cons in a Nutshell

As of 2016, four states have aid-in-dying statutes, with other states like Colorado perhaps soon to follow. With nearly one in six Americans living where these laws are on the books, what are Death with Dignity Act pros and cons? The pros are clear to advocates: a peaceful option for dying with a terminal illness; death can be in a place and time of the patient’s choosing; and control is kept firmly in the hands of the patient. The cons have largely been shown to be unfounded in the states where these laws have been enacted: safeguards have prevented patients from being coerced into using the law and doctors from unnecessarily prescribing the medicines.