Vermont becomes 2nd assisted suicide tourist state

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Taking a one-way trip to Vermont.

Lisa Rathke reported for the Associated Press (March 14, 2023) that Vermont's Attorney General's Office has reached an agreement with Lynda Bluestein, a Connecticut woman who is seeking death by assisted suicide, and Dr Diana Barnard, who is willing to prescribe the lethal assisted suicide drugs to Bluestein, by dropping the Vermont assisted suicide residency requirement. The article stated that Bluestein, who is living with cancer, will likely be the first non-Vermont resident, to die by assisted suicide in Vermont.

Some history about the issue.

In October 2021, the assisted suicide lobby group, Compassion and Choices, and Dr Nicholas Gideonse, an assisted suicide prescribing doctor, launched a court case challenging the Oregon assisted suicide residency requirement.

Instead of defending the residency requirement, the Oregon government agreed to remove the residency requirement. A March 29, 2022 an Associated Press article by Gene Johnson reported that: "Oregon will no longer require people to be residents of the state to use its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication."

On August 26, 2022, Compassion and Choices launched a lawsuit on behalf of a woman in Connecticut and a Vermont doctor challenging Vermont's assisted suicide residency requirement.

An article by James Reinl for the Daily Mail reported in February 2023 that Dr Nicholas Gideonse has opened the first assisted suicide clinic to prescribe lethal assisted suicide drugs for death tourists. At least one person from Texas and an east coast resident have died by assisted suicide in Oregon.

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