Woman wins lawsuit for non-resident assisted suicide in Vermont

Vermont on Monday settled a lawsuit with Connecticut resident Lynda Bluestein over the state’s requirement that only residents may seek assisted suicide there. Bluestein, 75, said she was diagnosed with three different forms of cancer. She had sued to seek out assisted suicide without changing her residency. Vermont has allowed assisted suicide for residents since 2013 if they have been diagnosed with an incurable illness that is expected to end their life within six months.

Do any other states have this sort of law? Nine other states plus the District of Columbia have assisted suicide laws on the books. Oregon is currently the only state that allows non-residents to come to the state for assisted suicide. The Vermont House passed a set of laws in February that would change its law to allow other non-residents to get assisted suicide in the state. Last month, Vermont Right to Life Committee Executive Director Mary Hahn Beerworth told state legislators that the law doesn’t have enough safeguards to prevent the coercion of “vulnerable terminally ill people.”

Dig deeper: Listen to Les Sillars’ report in the DoubleTake podcast about a Canadian doctor coming to the United States to escape assisted suicide.