The Vermont Center for Independent Living (VCIL), a disability rights group that focuses on dignity, independence and civil rights, is preparing to fight the legalization of assisted suicide in Vermont again this legislative session. In its winter newsletter titled Access Ability, Mark Kaufman lists opposition to assisted suicide among the group’s top three priorities. Kaufman writes that VCIL will work to defeat the assisted suicide bill in the upcoming legislative session “based on the lack of adequate and comprehensive safeguards.” The full article is below.
You can find more information on the Vermont Center for Independent Living on their website at http://www.vcil.org/
We Have Issues . . .
Another legislative session is coming up, another chance to voice our concerns—to share our ideas—and to take part in the process of rule and law.
One theme keeps bubbling up all across Vermont—the BUDGET. The consensus is very simple—that we don’t have enough money to support everything we need.
Talk about the budget is centered on what to cut, but we have an opportunity to talk about how to raise revenues and create more efficient programs. Your voice is needed as we talk to legislators and administrators; to raise questions, give concerns, and put forward new ideas.
VCIL has specific areas of concern for the upcoming legislative session: 1) maintaining employment and work incentives, 2) improving unified communication through broadband, wireless, and multiple format documentation, and 3) ensuring that the proposed physician-assisted suicide bill is defeated based on the lack of adequate and comprehensive safeguards.
We will also be watching issues in education, health care, and housing—with particular emphasis on the Olmstead decision and how it is implemented in our state.
We will work together to lead our state into the next decade.
I want to hear your ideas—Mark Kaufman, mkaufman@vcil.org