Vermont legalizes assisted suicide

May 22, 2013

Following votes of 75-65 in the state house and 17-13 in the state senate, Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize assisted suicide. Oregon and Washington legalized the practice by ballot initiative, while Montana did so by court order.

“Under the guise of offering patients ‘choice’ and ‘autonomy’ at the end of life, this new law asks those in the medical profession, which is a vocation dedicated to the service of life, to destroy the very lives they have pledged to save and to comfort at life’s most critical moments,” said Bishop Salvatore Matano of Burlington, the diocese that covers the entire state. “It is a heavy and unjust burden which has been placed on the shoulders of others when attention and resources should be devoted to palliative care and human compassion.”

“The new Vermont law goes beyond that in place in Oregon and allows the state in the coming years to drop even the so-called ‘safeguards’ against abuse,” added Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “In the name of autonomy and empowerment, seriously ill patients in Vermont who cannot speak for themselves are at risk of becoming victims of this law. The ‘slippery slope’ that critics of the euthanasia agenda have long warned against is in full view here.”

 

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Further information:

• Vermont Is 4th State to Legalize Assisted Suicide (AP)
• End-of-life bill heads to governor for signature (Burlington Free Press)
• Cardinal O’Malley: New Vermont Assisted Suicide Law Reveals Slippery Slope (USCCB)
• Statement by the Most Reverend Salvatore R. Matano, Ninth Bishop of Burlington Regarding the Legalization of Doctor-Prescribed Suicide (Diocese of Burlington, 5/20)
• Statement by the Most Reverend Salvatore R. Matano, Ninth Bishop of Burlington, Regarding Doctor-Prescribed Suicide Legislation (Diocese of Burlington, 1/22)