Vermont becomes America’s first ‘suicide tourism’ state

Vermont became the first state in the US on Tuesday to remove a requirement that anyone seeking assisted suicide there be a resident of the state. 

The state is one of 10 in the US that allows assisted suicide. The others include Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia. 

The removal of the Vermont residency requirement signed into law by Republican Gov Phil Scott opens the door to a concept known as ‘suicide tourism’, which involves traveling to a jurisdiction where assisted suicide is legal. 

Before Vermont removed its residency requirement Tuesday, it had reached a settlement agreement with a terminally-ill Connecticut woman allowing her to take advantage of Vermont’s law, provided she complies with other aspects of it. 

US states have been following the lead of northern neighbor Canada in liberalizing its assisted suicide laws in what critics are calling a euthanasia free-for-all. 

Last year, the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Medical Board agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement and to ask the Legislature to remove it from the in its assisted dying law, but it has not yet done so. 

Kim Callinan, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy organization that filed the challenge the Oregon residency requirement last year said: ‘We are grateful to Vermont lawmakers for recognizing 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. 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.’ 

Under Vermont’s Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act, residents who are suffering from an incurable and irreversible disease that would, within reasonable medical judgment, result in death within six months, would qualify for assisted suicide. 

They must be able to self-administer the medication and be capable of making their own health care decisions. Interested patients are required to make two requests orally to the physician over a certain timeframe and then submit a written request that they signed in the presence of two or more witnesses who aren’t interested parties.

Then, witnesses must sign and affirm that the patient appeared to understand the nature of the document and was free from duress or undue influence at the time. 

But critics of assisted suicide are concerned that there are not enough safeguards in place to protect people with disabilities, who may be steered toward end-of-life care.