Vermont lawmakers are considering changes to the state’s aid-in-dying law. A former colleague, now terminally ill, says they’re necessary.

By Riley Robinson
Jan 12 2022, 4:52 PM

Editors’ note: Following publication of this story, Willem Jewett’s palliative care doctor, Diana Barnard, informed VTDigger that the former majority leader died Wednesday afternoon using a prescription obtained through Act 39. Jewett was 58 years old. VTDigger will publish an account of his life in the coming days.

Nearly a decade ago, Willem Jewett was instrumental in passing a Vermont law enabling terminally ill patients to end their lives.

Now, the 58-year-old former House majority leader is seeking to use the law to obtain a prescription that could end his own life. And he’s found its restrictions on patients and providers — waiting periods, multiple in-person requests — to be obstructive and “completely meaningless.”

“If anyone wants to suggest that I, or anyone else who’s gotten to this stage, hasn’t thought long and deeply about this, and if they’ve made the request, hasn’t done it with information, or at the end of the day, conviction — they’re crazy,” Jewett said. “What do people think we do when we’re sick in bed?”

“There’s a lot of time to think and figure things like that out,” he said.

To access medical aid in dying under Vermont law, a patient must have a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less to live. The patient must make two in-person requests — at least 15 days apart — to a prescribing physician, see another consulting physician in person and make a written request.