Despite the continuing campaign to make assisted suicide legal in Vermont, the Burlington Free Press reported yesterday that the Vermont legislature is unlikely even to consider the issue in its 2012 session. The reason: the votes are not there in the Senate to pass the bill introduced last February. If this bill dies, its passing will mark the ninth failed effort to pass assisted suicide legislation in Vermont. The people who want assisted suicide are nothing if not persistent. So far, they have not been able to wear us down. It is up to the people of Vermont to keep it that way.
Below in italics are the relevant paragraphs from the article, which can be read in its entirety at http://blogs.burlingtonfreepress.com/politics/2011/10/03/physician-assisted-death-forums-planned-in-vermont/.
Will the Vermont Legislature take up the issue next year? It doesn’t seem any more likely than this year, when the bill never surfaced because of a lack of support in the Senate. House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, on Monday reiterated, “We’re not going to move the bill of there’s not support in the House and Senate. It’s not clear that there’s support in the Senate.”
Smith said he and Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell, D-Windsor, have not had any new conversations about reviving the bill next year.
Campbell indicated Monday nothing has changed from last session. He said though he personally opposes the legislation, he wouldn’t block it from coming up if others in the Senate wanted to. That’s not likely to happen.