Montpelier, Vt. — The Vermont House of Representatives has turned back an attempt to make the New England state the second in the country to legalize physician-assisted suicide.
The House voted 82–63 against a bill patterned after a law in Oregon, according to the Times Argus, a central Vermont newspaper. Oregon is the only state that has legalized assisted suicide.
The bill would have permitted terminally ill people who are expected to live less than six months to obtain from a doctor a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs, the Times Argus reported. The patient would have to administer the drug.
Pro-life advocates applauded the March 21 House vote.
Oregon officially has had 292 people take their lives with the aid of doctors since its Death With Dignity Act took effect in 1997. The state reported March 8 that 46 people committed suicide under the law in 2006. That is the most reported in one year in the state.
Share with others: