Nonresident in Vt. granted suicide right
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Lynda Bluestein has terminal cancer and knows she’ll likely die soon, but until Tuesday she didn’t know if she’d be able to choose how or when and whether her family, friends and dog would be with her when the time comes.
The 75-year-old from Bridgeport, Connecticut, reached a settlement with the state of Vermont that will allow her to be the first nonresident to take advantage of its decade-old law that allows people who are terminally ill to end their own lives, provided she complies with other aspects of the law.
“I was so relieved to hear of the settlement of my case that will allow me to decide when cancer has taken all from me that I can bear,” said Bluestein, 75, who has fallopian tube cancer. “The importance of the peace of mind knowing that I will now face fewer obstacles in accessing the autonomy, control, and choice in this private, sacred and very personal decision about the end of my life is enormous.”
Vermont is one of 10 states that allow medically assisted suicide, but only one, Oregon, allows nonresidents to do it. Bluestein’s settlement and pending legislation that would remove Vermont’s residency requirement offer a ray of hope to other terminally ill patients who want to control how and when they die but might not be able to cross the country to do so.
Bluestein and Diana Barnard, a physician from Middlebury, sued Vermont last summer, claiming its residency requirement violates the Constitution’s commerce, equal protection, and privileges and immunities clauses.
Barnard, who specializes in hospice and palliative care and who has patients from neighboring New York state, which, like Connecticut, doesn’t allow medically assisted suicide, lauded the settlement and called on the Vermont Legislature to repeal the residency requirement.
“I am grateful that Lynda will be able to now access medical aid in dying without completely upending her final months. … There is no good reason that nonresidents should not be able to use Vermont’s medical aid-in-dying law that has eased the suffering of numerous terminally ill Vermonters since it took effect a decade ago,” Barnard said in a news release issued by Compassion & Choices, which filed the suit on behalf of Bluestein and Barnard and describes itself as a group that “expands options and empowers everyone to chart their end-of-life journey.”