Vermont Lawsuit Seeks to Expand Medical Aid in Dying Case aims to make the option available to non-residents - raising questions for New Hampshire patients.
In all but one state in the U.S. where MAID is legal, a terminally ill patient must be a resident of the state in order to qualify. The exception is Oregon, where a court earlier this year ruled the residency requirement is unconstitutional.
Earlier this month, a Connecticut patient, joined by a Vermont physician and the national advocacy group Compassion & Choices, filed a similar claim in Vermont. The suit is on behalf of Lynda Bluestein, a terminally ill Connecticut resident, and Vermont physician Diana Barnard, who specializes in hospice and palliative care.
Bluestein, 75, has fallopian tube cancer. Medical aid in dying is not authorized in Connecticut. She would like the option to access medical aid in dying in Vermont should her suffering become unbearable.
Dr. Barnard, an associate professor of family medicine at University of Vermont, treats patients from both Vermont and northern New York in her regular practice. The residency requirement contained in Vermont’s medical aid-in-dying law prevents Dr. Barnard from supporting her New York and other out-of-state patients’ requests for medical aid in dying.
Oregon is the exception because in March, a settlement was reached in a federal lawsuit brought by an Oregon physician represented by Compassion & Choices. The suit argued that the residency requirement in Oregon’s medical aid-in-dying law violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment.
As a result of the settlement, the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Medical Board, and a local district attorney all agreed not to enforce the residency restriction. The health authority also agreed to initiate a legislative request to permanently remove the law’s residency restriction.
The Vermont lawsuit argues that medical aid in dying is one of the only medical practices that is inaccessible to residents of specific jurisdictions. In other words, because other medical treatments or practices are not denied to patients because of their zip code, neither should medical aid in dying.
We want to note that NH law criminalizes assisting with “suicide.” MAID is not suicide – every state where it is legal specifies this. However, where it is not legal (like NH), it could be problematic for a patient to qualify in another state and come home to die in the company of their loved ones. We at NH Options will be following all this closely and keep you informed. Perhaps we should propose legislation making dying though MAiD exempt from the assisting suicide law?