Bills remove assisted suicide residency requirement in Oregon and Vermont.

Alex Schadenberg

"Removing the residency requirement permits every American to die by assisted suicide."

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The goal of the assisted suicide lobby is to legalize assisted suicide for everyone.

On January 9, the Oregon legislature introduced House Bill 2279 to amend the Oregon assisted suicide act by removing the state residency requirement. 

On January 20, the Vermont legislature introduced Senate Bill 26 to amend the Vermont assisted suicide act by removing the state residency requirement.

Removing the residency requirement in Oregon and Vermont will permit every American to die by assisted suicide and turn Oregon and Vermont into suicide tourist states. The assisted suicide lobby realizes that many states will not legalize assisted suicide, so they are forcing the states that have legalized assisted suicide to provide death for every American.

A little background.

In October 2021, Compassion and Choices and Dr Nicholas Gideonse, an assisted suicide prescribing doctor, launched a court case challenging the Oregon assisted suicide residency requirement. The assisted suicide lobby wants to eliminate assisted residency requirements to permit death by assisted suicide for every American. (Link to news article). 

Instead of defending the residency requirement the Oregon Goverment agreed to remove the residency requirement. A March 29, 2022 Associated Press article by Gene Johnson reported:

Oregon will no longer require people to be residents of the state to use its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication, after a lawsuit challenged the requirement as unconstitutional.

Compassion and Choices announced that they would pressure other states that had legalized assisted suicide to also eliminate their residency requirement.

On August 26, 2022, Compassion and Choices, an assisted suicide lobby group, launced a lawsuit on behalf of a woman in Connecticut and a doctor in New York challenging Vermont's assisted suicide law residency requirement.

According to the Concord Monitor:

Lynda Bluestein, 75, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who has terminal fallopian tube cancer, and Dr. Diana Barnard, of Middlebury, Vermont, argue in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington that Vermont’s residency requirement violates the U.S. Constitution.

Barnard said in the lawsuit that she would like to be able to offer the end-of-life option to her patients who live in New York. The two women have been advocates on the issue in New York and Connecticut, which currently have no laws in place to allow for medically assisted suicide.

This was the second state to face a legal challenge to force them to allow suicide tourism. Senate Bill 26 means that Vermont is not willing to defend their assisted suicide residency requirement.

We need to be clear. Assisted suicide laws give medical professionals the right in law to cause death by prescribing lethal prescriptions to people with suicidal ideation. These laws provide death not care. We need a caring society.