Bring death out of the closet
Burlington Free Press, February 7, 2007

The Vermont Legislature will soon resume deliberations on the proposed Death With Dignity Act. This bill will allow mentally competent and terminally ill Vermonters the option to end their lives in a gentle and humane manner, should all other efforts to eliminate or control suffering fail as death approaches. Based on Oregon's nine-year experience with patient-directed dying, we expect that only a small proportion of terminally-ill Vermonters will use the law to end their lives. Passage of this legislation will, however, provide immeasurable peace of mind to the hundreds of Vermonters suffering in the final stages of incurable and irreversible illnesses.

The law will enable, but not require, terminally ill Vermonters to control the timing and manner of the dying process, should all measures to prevent or relieve overwhelming suffering come to naught. The operative concept for these dying patients is "choice;" choice to ease the dying process by whatever means each patient determines best matches his or her values and beliefs. The proposed legislation incorporates multiple safeguards and directs neither patients nor health care providers to follow practices that run counter to their personal beliefs. Based on the Oregon experience, Vermonters have every reason to anticipate further improvement in end-of-life care with passage of the law: more patients and their families will utilize the immeasurable gift of hospice, discussions of death will come out of the closet and doctors will be able to openly talk with their patients about the full spectrum of palliative options as life ebbs away.

We know from multiple polls across the country, as well as within Vermont, that a large majority of Republicans, Democrats and Independents, Catholics, Protestants and Jews and citizens of all walks of life want choice at the end of life, which the Death With Dignity bill provides. Former Govs. Hoff and Kunin and Lt. Gov. Snelling have all carefully studied the Oregon experience and endorse the proposed Vermont legislation. In the words of Gov. Hoff, "The time has come" for Vermont to pass the Death With Dignity law.

DAVID BABBOTT, M.D.
Burlington