​Patient Choices Vermont surveys candidates for statewide and legislative positions.

• For information on where and how to vote in Vermont, click here.
• Visit the Vermont Secretary of State’s voter page to find out your voter registration status, what district you live in and more.
• Then find your legislator with this Vermont District Map, or this Text-based Search. 
• VPIRG’s Tools for Democracy project provides further details on all of the candidates for Vermont office in the 2018 election: links to their website, Facebook page and Twitter profile if they have one.

Then, check on the results of PCV's Candidate Survey (508 KB PDF) which asks, "Are you inclined to oppose or support efforts to restrict or repeal Vermont's medical-aid-in-dying law (also known as "Act 39" and "Death with Dignity)?" Candidates who would vote to keep Act 39 in place answered with "OPPOSE" whereas candidates who would vote for restrictions or vote to repeal Act 39 answered "SUPPORT." A blank space means the candidate did not respond.

​We have also posted the guide in Scribd below. If it appears too small to read, scroll to the bottom and click on the Fullscreen icon (right side), then scroll to find the candidates from your district.

We have data for many, but not all candidates. If they didn't respond to our online survey and have no voting record on this issue, the line is left blank. If you know a candidate who hasn't responded, please ask them about their position and suggest that they contact PCV so that we can add their data to the table below. 

Please note that in our survey "OPPOSE" answers are from candidates who would vote to keep Act 39 in place, whereas "Support" answers are from candidates who would vote for restrictions or repeal.

​On Tuesday, October 9, 2018 delegates of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) approved a substitute resolution to adopt a position of "engaged neutrality" toward medical aid in dying as a personal end-of-life decision in the context of the physician-patient relationship.

AAFP President Michael Munger, M.D., of Overland Park, Kansas says, "The action taken today allows the AAFP to advocate for engaged neutrality on this subject at future AMA House of Delegates meetings. Through our ongoing and continuous relationship with our patients, family physicians are well-positioned to counsel patients on end-of-life care, and we are engaged in creating change in the best interest of our patients."

This stance puts them at odds with the American Medical Association (AMA) Code of Ethics which states: “Instead of engaging in assisted suicide, physicians must aggressively respond to the needs of patients at the end of life.”

The substitute resolution also calls on the AAFP to reject use of the phrase "assisted suicide" or "physician-assisted suicide" in its own formal communications and to direct the Academy's delegation to the AMA to promote the same action in the House of Delegates.

"We have to understand the power of family physicians," he said. "We have an ethical, personal role in our patients' lives. We can't be opposed to something that some people think is valuable. I think we have to have a more neutral stake in this difficult area. We have to understand the power of family physicians," says Arnold Pallay, M.D., AAFP delegate from Montville, New Jersey.

The Vermont Medical Society (VMS) has already adopted a neutral position on medical aid in dying, in recognition that it is legal in Vermont and that many Vermont doctors and their patients have already participated in the Act 39 process. The VMS policy may be found at http://www.vtmd.org/sites/default/files/2017End-of-Life-Care.pdf.  

We understand that Vermont doctors participated in the AAFP meeting and urged adoption of the new policy.

“As prominent national organizations like AAFP recognize the legitimate and very personal nature of a decision to use medical aid in dying, we will increasingly solidify end-of-life choice and the comfort it provides, “ says Betsy Walkerman, President of Patient Choices Vermont.  “We are pleased that Vermont’s careful and measured approach to medical aid in dying is contributing positively to changes like this on the national level.”