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About Patient Choices

Patient Choices at End of Life – Vermont
is a state-wide organization active in promoting optimum end-of-life care as desired by a majority of Vermonters.

Its mission and directors are a blend of two prior organizations: Death With Dignity Vermont and End-of-Life Choices Vermont. 

Patient Choices is an advocacy organization that seeks to educate Vermonters about end-of-life options and to influence policy, regulations and practice that affect the terminally ill.  It works to promote the best possible pain control, palliative and hospice care, and to enable terminally ill patients to choose the timing and manner of dying if even the best of care fails to prevent or alleviate unbearable suffering.

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ELECTION NEWS

Vote in the primary on August 24, or earlier by absentee ballot.

Here's what supportive candidates for Governor say
about Death with Dignity legislation:

Susan Bartlett – As Governor, I would be honored to sign into law a comprehensive piece of legislation that allows an individual choice at the end of life.   I have always believed that there are a number of choices that should remain between an individual, their family and their doctor.  A patient’s choice at the end of their life is certainly one of these issues. 

     I would work with legislative leaders and all concerned parties to bring legislation to my desk before adjournment in 2011.  Vermont is ready to pass this legislation.

Matt Dunne – I am committed to championing and passing patient choice legislation in 2011 when elected Governor. Because of personal experience with my father's terminal melanoma, I've been outspoken about my passion for allowing control over end-of-life decisions, publicly declaring support in my website's civil rights section. Read my full statement: http://www.mattdunne.com/news/vt-should-pass-death-with-dignity-legislation-in-2011.  I hoped Vermont would be the first state to allow real patient choice when I cosponsored legislation in 1995 (H.335), two years before Oregon passed Death with Dignity.  Vermont must show leadership befitting our moral and civil rights legacy by passing our own Death With Dignity law.

Deb Markowitz – Like people everywhere, Vermonters are deeply concerned about the final stages of life. They want to know that, when the time comes, they and their loved ones can die in comfort and with dignity.  

       Vermonters want the freedom to make important life choices for themselves with support from their doctors and families. As governor, I will ensure that our seniors have a full range of end-of-life choices, that mentally competent persons who are terminally ill have the right to choose the manner and timing of his or her death and that a patient’s choice about the dignity and place of his or her death are respected at the end of life.

 Doug Racine – All Vermonters should have choices for end-of-life care so that their final days can be dignified and comfortable. Families deserve respect and care at this time, and patients need to know that their choices will be honored. Nobody deserves to suffer for prolonged periods of time when it is clear that the illness is terminal, and patients should be able to decide on their own what is bearable and unbearable.  

     As Governor, I will encourage the legislative leadership to bring needed legislation to my desk prior to the legislative adjournment in 2011, and I will help as necessary.

Peter Shumlin  – As Governor, I will strongly champion death with dignity legislation.  I have been a sponsor of this legislation for multiple years and I have a track record of bringing people together to get tough things done.  I worked with a variety of Vermonters to make Vermont the first state in the nation to pass marriage equality and worked to close Vermont’s leaking, aging nuclear power plant on schedule.  These were not easy issues but, in both cases, taking on the tough fight was the right thing to do.  I feel the same about patient choices at the end of life.  As Governor, I would make this a top priority and in my State of the State address would ask  the legislature to take this civil rights issue up and pass it prior to adjournment in 2011.

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End-of-Life Care and Pain Management
is the subject of Act 25.  It was passed by both houses and signed by Governor Douglas in May 2009.

Identical bills -- Senate bill S.144 and House bill H.455 -- introduced in April 2009, propose Aid-in-Dying legislation which will bring the Oregon Death with Dignity Act to Vermont and will:

• Guarantee that all adult Vermonters have a full range of legal  end-of-life choices
  
• Assure that mentally-competent persons who are terminally ill have the right to choose the manner and timing of death
  
• Allow a terminally ill, mentally-competent person to avoid the pain of a prolonged dying process by self-administering legally prescribed medication

Whether or not terminal medication is actually taken by an individual, the fact that he/she has control of his/her life is the comfort that is now lacking.

Major provisions of the proposed legislation:

• In the opinion of two physicians, the life expectancy of the patient will be six months or less
• The patient must be mentally competent
• The patient must make two oral requests separated by a waiting period of at least 15 days
• The patient must sign a witnessed written request
• Two doctors must certify that the patient's request is voluntary with no evidence of coercion
• The request is revocable by the patient at any time
• Medication would be prescribed by the doctor and self-administered by the patient
• Voluntary on the part of the doctor
• No criminal liability for a physician, family member or caring friend who is present
• Health or life insurance policies cannot be nullified if a patient utilizes the law to end his/her life
• Does not permit euthanasia
• Monitoring by State Health Department

Listen to and watch the remarkable chronicle
of 62-year-old Lovelle Svart.           
A life-affirming woman dying of lung cancer, she recorded a video diary during the last six months of her life. She died on September 28, 2007. 
The newspaper, Oregonian, provided this opportunity:
Lovelle Svart story

"The time has come"

Television commentary spot featuring Dick Mallary (R), U.S. House of Representatives and Speaker of Vermont House of Representatives, and Jean Mallary, Vermont Ethics Network. Read the transcript.

Television commentary spot featuring Governors Phil Hoff and Madeleine Kunin and Lt. Governor Barbara Snelling on Patient-Directed Dying legislation. Read the transcript.

Patient Choices at End of Life – Vermont is a not-for-profit, independent political action organization based in Vermont. 

Patient Choices at End of Life – Vermont
formerly Death with Dignity Vermont and End-of-Life Choices Vermont
3218 Wake Robin Drive
Shelburne, VT 05482
802-985-9473
E-mail:

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