- The number of people using assisted suicide in Vermont has quadrupled in recent years, according to a new report
- In total, there have been 203 cases of assisted suicide in the state since it was first legalized in 2013.
- Last week, Linda Bluestein, who pushed for the state to expand its laws to non-residents, died of lethal drugs after suffering from cancer
The number of people who decide to take their own lives through Vermont’s assisted suicide laws has quadrupled in the past two years, a new report has revealed.
The state Department of Health report shows that the number of assisted suicide deaths rose from 17 between 2019 and 2021 to 84 from 2021 to 2023.
In total, there have been 203 reported cases in the state since it was first legalized in 2013, with 73 percent of people choosing to die because they had cancer.
Other causes include people who have suffered from neurodegenerative conditions, end-stage lung disease and other conditions.
By law, the state of Vermont lists all such deaths as “natural” on its death certificates and lists the cause as the underlying medical condition.
While the numbers have risen dramatically in recent years, lawmakers continue to loosen the reins of the law.
In 2022, officials legalized assisted suicide appointments, allowing a doctor to sign off on a patient’s request to die without ever meeting the patient face-to-face.
Last May, Vermont passed a bill allowing foreigners to come to the state to receive assisted suicide.
One of them was Connecticut woman Linda Bluestein, who urged Vermont lawmakers to change the law.
Bluestein, 76, had terminal cancer and ended her life in Vermont last Thursday in what her husband described as “comfortable and peaceful.”
Her last words were: “I’m so happy I don’t have to do this (suffer) anymore,” her husband Paul wrote in an email to the Compassion & Choices group.
The organization filed a lawsuit against Vermont in 2022 on behalf of Bluestein, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Diana Barnard, a Middlebury physician.
The suit claims that the Vermont residency requirement in the so-called Patient Choice and End-of-Life Control Act violates the Commerce, Equal Protection and Privileges and Immunities clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
Vermont agreed to a settlement last March that allowed Bluestein, who is not a state resident, to use the law to die there.
Just two months later, Vermont made adjustments to expand its medically assisted suicide law to anyone in similar circumstances.
It became the first state in the country to change its law to allow terminally ill people from another state to use it to end their lives.
Former Vermont legislator and state House Majority Leader Willem Jewett also died by medically assisted suicide after being diagnosed with a rare disease.
The 58-year-old was told he had mucosal melanoma, a rare type of cancer that develops in the lining of the body.
Jewett later died at his home in Ripton, Vermont on January 12, 2022, surrounded by his family.
He was responsible for helping push through changes to the original law in 2013 that later made it easier for people to get a prescription for suicide.
There are 10 other states that allow medically assisted suicide, but before Vermont changed its law, only Oregon allowed non-residents to do so by not imposing the residency requirement as part of a court settlement.
Oregon eliminated that requirement last summer.
Vermont law allows doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to people with a terminal illness expected to kill them within six months.
Patients are required to make two verbal requests to the physician within a specified period of time and then submit a written request signed in the presence of two or more witnesses who are not interested parties.
Witnesses must sign and certify that patients understood the nature of the document and were free from coercion or undue influence at the time.
Others express moral opposition to assisted suicide and say there are no guarantees to protect vulnerable patients from coercion.
Assisted suicide is an option given to law enforcement officers in Colorado, California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. This is an option made available to individuals in Montana by court order.
