Vermont Bill Would Allow Nondoctors to Prescribe Assisted Suicide

Vermont has repeatedly expanded its assisted suicide law since it first passed. Nonresidents are allowed to receive lethal prescriptions, and assisted suicide can be prescribed via Zoom or Skype.

Now, a bill has been filed that would allow nondoctor “clinicians” to prescribe death. From H.B. 75:

This bill proposes to authorize naturopathic physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to participate in the processes established in Vermont’s patient choice at end-of-life laws. It would also allow naturopathic physicians to sign and issue do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders and clinician orders for life-sustaining treatment.

In other words, a suicidal patient would be able to access poison pills without ever seeing a doctor or having an in-person consultation or examination.

What next? Pharmacists? Don’t laugh. Washington State launched a pilot project allowing pharmacists to prescribe chemical abortion pills by telemedicine. Prescribed death is prescribed death, so why not assisted suicide too?

No one should be surprised by this. Vermont is just following the plan. When assisted suicide laws are passed with “strict guidelines” to protect against abuse, the guidelines are meant to sell the hemlock to the public but not to be the ceiling of permissibility. Rather, the initial laws are merely the launching pad for an ever-expanding prescribed death regime. Caveat emptor.