Lynda Bluestein is dying and she wants to go with dignity, even if she has to sue Vermont to do it
BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT: A 75-year-old terminally ill patient from Connecticut who is suing Vermont in the hopes of utilizing the state's laws on assisted suicide claims that watching her mother die from the illness inspired her lawsuit. The rule only allows its own residents to take advantage of the state law that allows people who are terminally ill to undergo assisted suicide in order to end their lives. Lynda Bluestein was diagnosed with terminal fallopian tube cancer on March 2021, having previously suffered breast and skin cancer.
Bluestein was given between six and three years to live on diagnosis, but she has defied expectations and is still in reasonably good health. She is aware that there will not be a miracle treatment and that her health will deteriorate soon. In a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Burlington, Lynda Bluestein, 75, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Dr Diana Barnard, of Middlebury, Vermont, claim that Vermont's residency requirement is unconstitutional.
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Bluestein recently wrote on Facebook and posted a glimpse of her interview where she said, "I despise the term 'physician assisted suicide' - it’s not the same thing as medical aid in dying (MAID). People who don’t want to live commit suicide - they get a gun, a car, or a high bridge. I love my life and want to live, just not if/when each day is torture I would like to be the one to decide when I’ve had enough. Not my State Representative or some legislative committee - me."
While speaking with Daily Mail, Bluestein said, "I was mostly influenced by my mother's death in 1994, she also had three cancers and I went from New York to California to be there at the end with her." She added, "She turned away and said 'I don't want you to see me like this.'" She continued, "she was a fraction of what she used to be and had been suffering for a long time. As I held her as she breathed her last, I said this is not going to happen to me. This is not how I want my life to end." Bluestein further said, "When I got my most recent diagnosis I just knew that I had to find a place that I could go to. My husband contacted people he knows at Compassion and Choices to help me."
Because Vermont's law on assisted suicide only applies to citizens of the state, she is not allowed to use it. The grandmother with cancer has sued Vermont in an effort to legally end her life and has vowed to do "everything" in her power to overturn the state's law in order to aid others.
Residents of Vermont are permitted to request medical assistance in dying (MAiD) if they have an incurable illness and less than six months to live. She worries that when her health finally starts to deteriorate, she won't be able to finish the paperwork because she has seen one of her friends relocate to Vermont in order to take advantage of the law.
"I chose Vermont because I have a friend who was in the final stages of cancer and who decided to move there in order to take advantage of their MAiD laws," Bluestein said.
The cancer-stricken grandmother saw her mother suffer a torturous death from the disease in 1994 and says that when the time comes, she wants a painless death on her terms. Bluestein asserts that even though she is currently in reasonably good health, by the time she is ready to pass away, she will probably be too frail to complete the paperwork and red tape necessary to use Vermont's assisted dying program.
She said, "Even before I had cancer it has always been a belief of mine that this should be available. I despise the idea of a politician or a judge making medical decisions for me. It is not anybody's business." She added, "For those opposing it, this is nothing to do with you this has to do with my beliefs and my choices and my health. The state should have no interest in how I pass. It is not an easy process but it is a serious decision. If I wanted to commit suicide I could do it right now." She continued, "People who commit suicide want to die. I want very much to live, fully until the treatment and the ravages of the disease take too much of what makes me, me away."
The decision has been discussed by the couple for the past 20 years, and they claim that their son, daughter, and twin teenage granddaughters agree with it. Paul, Lynda's husband, stated "Anyone in the US can go to any state they chose and get medical care, the only medical procedure that is prohibited and requires residency is MAiD and it doesn't make sense. The lawsuit is our best hope. Lynda doesn't have years to wait for it to make its way through courts and debates; we need relief now. Everyone is one bad death of a relative or a friend, from becoming an advocate of this. People would not let their dog, or their cat suffer through a terminal illness." He added, "The only other US state offering legal assisted dying is Oregon. Its rule that participants must be state residents was previously overturned by a successful lawsuit. Yet they're perfectly willing to let a person suffer through that. Most people in this country are in favor of people being able to access MAiD. We are living currently on in the tyranny of the minority."
In Vermont, physicians are allowed to legally prescribe lethal medication to residents of the state if they suffer from incurable illnesses and have a life expectancy of fewer than six months under The Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act (Act 39).
Amitai Heller, senior attorney at Compassion and Choices, stated that they are hoping to get the case dealt with "as soon as possible".
He added, "We have people dying in nearby states who would very much like to be able to access MAiD and who can't do so because of their zip code. It is fundamentally unfair." Dr Barnard added, "I hope other states take notice of Oregon not enforcing the residents' requirement and these lawsuits aren't necessary. Those opposed to medically-assisted dying fear it would make states that offer the process destinations for tourists wishing to end their own lives - but polls continue to show a large majority of Americans are in favor."