Vermont will allow non-residents to use its assisted suicide law

Vermont on Tuesday became the first state in the nation to change its physician-assisted suicide law to allow terminally ill people from out of state to take advantage of it to end their lives.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill removing the residency requirement for the decades-old law.

Last year in a court agreement, Oregon agreed to stop enforcing his law’s residency requirement that allows the terminally ill to receive lethal drugs. He also agreed to ask the Legislative Assembly to remove it from the law.

Before Vermont removed the residency requirement on Tuesday, had come to an agreement with a Connecticut woman who has terminal cancer to allow her to take advantage of her law, as long as she complies with other aspects of it.

“We are grateful to Vermont legislators for recognizing that a state line should not determine whether you die peacefully or in agony,” Kim Callinan, president and CEO of Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit advocacy organization, said in a statement. release. “Patients regularly travel to other states to use the best health care options. There is no rational reason why they should not be able to travel to another state to access medical aid in dying if the state they live in does not offer it.”

Vermont is one of 10 states that allow physician-assisted suicide. Critics of such laws say that without residency requirements, states risk becoming assisted suicide tourist destinations.

Rathke reported from Marshfield, Vt.