Associated Press, Montpelier
May 18, 2004

Assisted-suicide advocates are looking to Oregon, next year
By Anne Wallace Allen

The Associated Press MONTPELIER - The legislative research office is going to fulfill an unusual request this year: A letter signed by 78 members of the House asks the office to analyze Oregon's experience with physician-assisted suicide.

The letter, written by Rep. William Aswad, D-Burlington, asks the Legislative Council to "consult with all interested parties in Vermont and catalogue the areas of factual disputes."

It directs the office to refrain from making any policy recommendations on the matter.

Legislative Council chief Bill Russell said that while requests for research come in all shapes and sizes, and on all sorts of topics, the letter and the subject struck him as unusual. Requests like Aswad's often come as a resolution, he said.

"It's not a normal request and it's not a normal subject. It's a letter from 78 members asking us to research a situation in a state 3,000 miles away," said Russell. "But I presume we'll do it - if 78 members want us to do some research, we'll try to do it."

It was clear early in the session this year that the bills regarding physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients wouldn't go anywhere in the House and Senate Health and Welfare Committees, which were assigned to review them. House Health and Welfare did hold hearings on the measure, and the two committees together held a joint public hearing in February.

But many groups opposed the measure, including the Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights and the Vermont Medical Society. And the chairmen of the two Health and Welfare committees, Republican Rep. Tom Koch of Barre and Democratic Sen. James Leddy of Burlington, made no effort to advance them onto the House floor for debate.

"Chairman Koch ... kept it bottled up," Aswad said of the bill. "I detected there were a lot of people interested in at least discussing the subject." Aswad said Tuesday he also asked for the study because he thinks many people in Vermont don't understand the difference between euthanasia - where the doctor administers the lethal dose - and assisted suicide - where the patient administers the dose.

Euthanasia is practiced in the Netherlands, and physician-assisted suicide is practiced in Oregon.

According to a report released in March by the Oregon Department of Human Services, 42 terminally ill patients killed themselves last year in Oregon under the assisted-suicide law. That number was about a 10 percent increase over the year before, when 38 people committed suicide legally.

Oregon's law allows terminally ill patients with less than six months to live to request a lethal dose of drugs after two doctors confirm the prognosis and judge the patient mentally competent to make the request. Vermont's proposal calls for a system almost identical to Oregon's.

"We just want people to understand there is a bill that passed in Oregon; that we have a similar bill; and based on the Oregon experience it's the right thing for Vermont to do," Aswad said.

The Legislative Council does research every summer for individual members of the Legislature and for committees on a variety of topics. Sometimes the research is carried out by a committee of lawmakers; sometimes members of the Executive Branch are added to the mix and the study group is called a commission. Sometimes the committee is called a working group.

Lawmakers sometimes make the request through legislation or through resolutions - though Aswad said he decided it was too late in the legislative session to do the latter. The physician-assisted suicide study will probably be carried out by members of the Legislative Council staff. Russell said Tuesday he had no opinion on the topic and hadn't been involved in any discussions about it.

"I don't think we'll be traveling to Oregon or anything," he said. "We'll do the best we can with what we have."

Meanwhile, advocates of assisted suicide plan to try again next year in the Legislature, said lobbyist Candy Moot. Polls show people in Vermont support assisted suicide, Moot said.

"There are issues where the public leads, and the leaders follow, and I think this is one where a significant majority in the public have clarity," Moot said.