There is a persistent myth circulating regarding Vermont’s assisted suicide legislation that suggests the legislation contains many safeguards to prevent abuse. This is simply untrue. The legislation passed in Vermont in fact contains few concrete safeguards for patients and is primarily designed to protect the doctors who enable them to kill themselves.
In a June 9 Oakland Press (suburban Detroit) article that can be found here http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2013/06/09/news/politics/doc51b13887a2e5a401613766.txt, Elysa Koppelman-White, associate professor in Oakland University’s department of philosophy with an emphasis on bioethics, said the laws in Oregon, Washington and Vermont have an “imbedded system” of safety nets to prevent instances of abuse. “There’s all sorts of checks and balances,” Koppelman-White said, referring to the number of steps a patient must take in the process legalized under the new law.
We at True Dignity would like to ask Koppelman-White and others who continue to perpetuate this myth for a complete list of the supposed checks and balances found in S.77 which will protect patients who are depressed and those who feel they have no other choice, from receiving the lethal drugs, as well as the follow-up protections to patients who may change their minds after the prescription is written.
(Don’t bother looking. They’re not there.)