Vermont House OKs kill gays with AIDS bill; governor expected to sign it.

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ObamaCare! How's that working out for you libtards?

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By Michael Mello
May 14, 2013, 2:21 p.m.

Vermont is on track to become the fourth state to allow severely
ill patients to end their lives under medical supervision.
The state�s House of Representatives voted 75 to 65 on Monday
night to approve the �Patient Choice at End of Life� measure.
The legislation, passed by the Senate in February, now goes to
Gov. Peter Shumlin, who said he would sign it.

If he does, it will make Vermont the first state to approve such
a measure through state lawmakers. Oregon and Washington enacted
their laws through a referendum, and a Montana Supreme Court
decision made it legal in that state.

For the governor, Vermont�s bill �is about giving people comfort
that they might have the option of avoiding excruciating pain.�

Shumlin said his mother visited him at the Legislature in
Montpelier recently and asked him how the bill was going.

�She said, �I don�t think I�d ever use it, no matter how much
pain I�m in, but it would give me peace of mind knowing I
could,� � the governor told The Times.

The law would take effect immediately with the governor�s
signature.

Though the bill appears to be headed for the books, its path
there has been anything but inevitable. Contention from both
sides of the right-to-die issue has caused the bill to perish
and be resurrected several times over the last decade.

Some of the opposition came from groups such as the Vermont
Alliance for Ethical Healthcare and True Dignity Vermont, which
argue that �killing is not compassion� and that patients could
be pressured into ending their lives. On Tuesday, True Dignity
Vermont�s website urged the state�s residents to call the
governor�s office and demand that Shumlin veto the bill.

�Our organization and our members and lots of other people in
this state are disappointed,� said Edward Mahoney of the Vermont
Alliance for Ethical Healthcare.

Mahoney said some opponents could probably live with the bill if
it were more like Oregon�s system, with a longer chain of
protections, he said, than what the Vermont Legislature approved.

�The Senate put together a real hodgepodge of a bill.... I don�t
know that anyone�s really happy with it, even those who voted
for it,� he said.

Debate on how best to administer physician-assisted suicide led
to heavy revisions in the Senate before the bill passed there,
17 to 13; the Senate�s five-member Committee on Health and
Welfare sponsored the legislation.

In its final form, the legislation allows for an end-of-life
process with the consent of a patient�s doctor after the patient
has made more than one request for help in ending his or her
life, and has then had a chance to retract the request.

More than 10 years ago, proponent Dick Walters founded Patient
Choice Vermont, a group that advocates physician-assisted
suicide.

�It took us a heck of a lot longer than we hoped it would. But
this is a huge thing,� Walters told The Times on Tuesday. �It�s
not just the legislation. It�s the different atmosphere
surrounding end-of-life issues.�

Since Oregon�s law passed about 15 years ago, the medical
establishment began to change its views, Walters said, which
affected �the whole continuum of end-of-life care.... It opened
up a dialogue for a more effective communication between
patients and doctors. We expect those same things will occur in
Vermont after passage.�

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-vermont-
legislature-oks-right-to-die-bill-20130514,0,6406815.story

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