Proponents of assisted suicide are using a sneaky backdoor tactic to force a full Senate vote on assisted suicide!
As you likely recall, the assisted suicide legislation, S103, had a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, but proponents failed to pursuade the members of the Judiciary Committee to pass it out of committee. Sen. Dick Sears, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee remained steadfast in his opposition to the legislation, for which we continue to be grateful and urge thanks.
But a well-funded campaign to legalize assisted suicide in our state has now attached language to legalize assisted suicide to a bill regulating the use of tanning beds by minors in the Health and Welfare Committee. A full Senate vote is expected as early as Thursday, April 12th. Time is of the essence, and we are urging you to begin to contact your Senators immediately. Please call the Statehouse at 802-828-2228 and ask them to vote against any bill with assisted suicide language attached, specifically H157, coming out of the Health and Welfare Committee. Give your name and town and ask your Senators to vote against any and all attempts to pass assisted suicide.
Contact information for your State Senators can be found here:
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/lms/legdir/districts.asp?Body=S&Session=2012
We have no position on the language in H157 concerning tanning beds. Our position is strictly against legalizing assisted suicide. We regret that this issue has surfaced again, after Vermonters have voiced their opposition to it time and time again.