The Vermont Senate passed a bill Thursday that retains two sections of the state’s physician-assisted suicide law that were set to expire July 1, 2016.
In 2013, the Legislature passed Act 39, which supporters sometimes call the “death with dignity law.” Under the law, a physician may prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a terminally ill patient after going through a lengthy process.
Two sections that outline the extensive measures doctors and patients must go through to authorize the prescription will expire if the Legislature does not vote to repeal the “sunset” clauses by passing S.108.
Here are some of those provisions that will be preserved if the House also approves the action:
• A patient must make two oral requests, 15 days apart, and then a written request for a lethal prescription.
• The doctor has to offer the patient the option to rescind the second verbal request.
• The doctor has to verify the patient either did not have impaired judgment or refer a patient with impaired judgment to a mental health provider.
• The doctor must determine that the patient was “making an informed decision” and inform the patient verbally and in writing the range of treatment options.
• A second doctor must confirm that the patient was acting voluntarily when requesting the lethal prescription.
• The patient’s original doctor must document all the requests in the patient’s medical record.
• “Promptly” after writing the prescription, the patient’s original doctor must submit a report to the Vermont Department of Health documenting that the doctor and patient followed the appropriate legal procedure.
On Wednesday, the one-page bill generated more than an hour of impassioned debate leading up to Sen. Norm McAllister’s failed attempt to repeal the 2013 law altogether.
