COLCHESTER, Vt. -
Vermont lawmakers are now debating one of the tough ethical questions of our time. Should terminally ill people be allowed to take their own lives with the help of a doctor?
They sent me to find out... does the death with dignity bill really allow people to die in a dignified way? We asked the question, but as we found out today, there's still very little known about how it would work.
---
Death with dignity... proposed legislation that would allow a doctor to essentially take a patient's life who is terminally ill.
A Senate vote on the death with dignity bill could come as early as next week; Governor Shumlin has expressed his support and hopes that the legislature will get it passed.
"People have very strongly held views and I know the legislature will listen," Gov. Shumlin said.
The Governor was moved by a Vermonter with stage four ovarian cancer. She lived longer than doctor's predicted... but told the Governor, "when I die it's going to be a very painful death and I want to control the last 14 days of my life."
I asked, "how quickly could something like this happen?"
The Associate Dean of the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Robert Hamilton said, "well if it's administered intravenously, in a high enough dose, it could be very rapid."
But many of my other questions went unanswered. There's still so little known about the bill. How would it work? As the Dean mentioned, a pill or an IV drip are the likely options, but finding an effective dose could be challenging.
"I assume that the people who would administer this would try to pick a dose that's so incredibly high, it seems impossible that anybody would survive, but that's going to be kind of a guess," Hamilton said.
Also, after the doctor prescribed it, would he or she help administer the dose? At home or in a hospital? What about something so contrary to medical training? "Any health care professional was trained to sustain life, to improve life, so their focus is generally not to do anything that would terminate life," Hamilton said.
It's indeed a controversial topic that will be given a dignified debate this week.
The Albany College of Pharmacy does include death with dignity in parts of the curriculum, but students are taught that all medication can potentially lethal.
We'll of course, continue to watch this controversial story closely.
