Vermont’s “Death with Dignity” law has a booby trap and needs to be corrected by the Legislature.
In addition to requiring a doctor to say you only have six months or less to live (also the hurdle to get into hospice), Act 39 requires you to make your right-to-die request twice orally, 15 days apart, and also once in writing. Fifteen days apart is a tiny window indeed.
With the best of intentions, Vermont’s Act 39 has thrown a monkey wrench into that time-sensitive process. The law says you must be “capable” of understanding your three mandatory requests, and you must not be “mentally impaired” when you make them. “…Aye there’s the rub,” to quote Hamlet, who is also thinking about suicide: His own (Act 3, Sc.1).
Since “confusion” is one of the side-effects of taking opioids, you may be considered “mentally impaired” if you have been given a course of opioids for pain, even if you began taking the pills just one day before you make your three requests to invoke Act 39.
That clumsy three-requests procedure was created to make sure you are sure about this irreversible process. It inadvertently ensures two weeks of agonizing pain may be required to qualify for Vermont’s death with dying Act 39 without pain reducing opioids.
The Legislature needs to fix this.