A cancer-stricken grandmother from Connecticut is suing Vermont in the hopes of leveraging that state’s laws on assisted suicide since she saw her mother die from the illness.
Lynda Bluestein, 75, said to DailyMail.com: “My mother’s death in 1994, together with the fact that she had three malignancies, and the fact that I traveled from New York to California to be with her at the end, had a major impact on me.
I don’t want you to see me like this, she muttered as she turned away. She had been in pain for a very long time and was just a little portion of who she once was.
This is not going to happen to me, I murmured as I held her as she took her last breath. I do not wish to pass away in this manner.
“When I received my most recent diagnosis, I realized I had to find a location where I could go,” the patient said. To assist me, my husband called Compassion and Choices acquaintances.
Bluestein has already battled skin and breast cancer before receiving a fatal fallopian tube cancer diagnosis in March 2021.
Upon diagnosis, she was given six months to three years to live, but she has defied expectations and is still in quite excellent condition.
She is aware, however, that there will be no miraculous treatment and that her condition will soon deteriorate.
75-year-old Lynda Bluestein is suing the state of Vermont to get access to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) services, which are now only accessible to residents.
Since Vermont’s statute on assisted suicide only applies to residents, she is not allowed to use it.
The grandmother with cancer has sued Vermont in an effort to legally terminate her life and has pledged to do “all” in her power to overturn the state’s ban in order to aid others.
Residents of Vermont are permitted to request medical help in dying if they have an incurable disease and fewer than six months to live.
She worries that when her health finally starts to deteriorate, she won’t be able to finish the paperwork since she has witnessed one of her friends go to Vermont in order to take advantage of the legislation.
“I picked Vermont because I had a friend who was in the latter stages of cancer and who opted to relocate there in order to take advantage of their MAiD regulations,” she said.
In March 2021, Bluestein received a fatal fallopian cancer diagnosis, defying the six-month prognosis. However, she claims that when the time comes, she wants a peaceful death on her terms after seeing her mother’s agonizing death from cancer in 1994.
She needed two strangers she met in her dying days to sign off on part of the paperwork, which took her three months to complete.
She warned me not to wait too long in an email that she wrote to me. She said that it is far more difficult and time-consuming than you anticipate.
“When I received my troubling diagnosis, I wanted a voice and a seat at the table. I’m not going to allow politicians, courts, or anybody else dictate how I spend my last days because it’s my life.
“I’m going to decide that,” I wish I could obtain it here instead of having to go to Vermont, but I can’t.
“My sickness advances extremely quickly, and it might render me unable, both physically and mentally, of completing all the necessary documentation.”
The mother of two from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Dr. Diana Barnard from Vermont filed the complaint, alleging that the residency requirement is unconstitutional under the US Constitution.
She told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that she wants to organize her affairs before she becomes “physically and emotionally” unable to cope with the challenging choice and all the paperwork it implies.
“This isn’t just a problem; this is my problem, and it’s all about me,” Bluestein stated. The fact that MAiD gives me a choice in how to spend my last days on earth has always been what has driven me to choose it.
Compassion and Choices, an MAiD-supporting organization, filed the action against Bluestein and Dr. Barnard in order to have the residency clause blocked from being enforced.
Bluestein and her husband Paul are seen in the photo. He concurs with her legal claim that Vermont’s present laws are unlawful. Oregon is the only other US state that permits lawful medically assisted death. A similar action was launched against Oregon and was successful.
The state of Oregon earlier agreed to let out-of-state visitors to use its facilities without charging them for violating the residency requirement, making this the second legal filing of its sort in America.
Only one other state in the US, Oregon, permits legal assisted suicide.
The case, according to the ladies, isn’t only for Bluestein; it’s also for anybody else who wants to choose how to terminate their life but isn’t now able to.
Despite fulfilling all other conditions, Dr. Barnard sees patients from New York who are now ineligible to utilize Vermont’s MAiD statute due to the residence limitations.
If she gives MAiD to non-Vermont residents who would otherwise be eligible, Dr. Barnard might now face criminal, civil, and medical board disciplinary measures, including the loss of her license to practice medicine.
According to a recent survey, over 75 percent of US citizens feel that those with terminal illnesses who have less than six months to live should be permitted to legally access MAiD.
“This isn’t just for me,” Bluestein said. “I have the resources and the support network to make this happen.”
We are prepared to put everything on hold at the moment’s notice in order to complete the task at hand. My friend’s husband, who attended Vermont, told her that he is really pleased of what I’m doing.
“I can’t wait to be admitted to hospice care,” you could say. If I wait until then to start, I’ll be in a frantic race to reach Vermont, unable to move, and pleading with complete strangers for signatures.
Despite being in generally excellent condition now, according to Bluestein, when she is ready to pass away, she will probably be too frail to finish the paperwork and red tape necessary to utilize Vermont’s assisted dying program.
I find it laborious to perform a lot of the things I used to do in my present state, so I find it difficult to comprehend how much more difficult it will be to start the process as it progresses.
“This has always been a belief of mine, even before I got cancer,” the patient said. I abhor the thought of a court or a politician making medical decisions on my behalf. It is none of their concern.
Those who are opposed should understand that this has nothing to do with them and everything to do with my values, my choices, and my health. The state shouldn’t care about how I test.
It is not a simple procedure, but it is a significant choice. I have the option to end my life right now if I so choose.
Suicidal individuals “wish to die.” I very much want to live my life to the fullest until the effects of the cancer and the therapy remove too much of what makes me, me.
The choice has been discussed by the couple for the last 20 years, and they claim that their son, daughter, and twin teenage granddaughters agree with it.
‘Anyone in the US may travel to whatever state they want and obtain medical treatment; the only medical operation that is restricted and needs residence is MAiD, and that doesn’t make sense,’ Paul, Lynda’s husband, said.
Our greatest chance is the lawsuit, Lynda doesn’t have years to wait for it to pass through the courts and discussions; she needs help right now.
Everyone is only one unfortunate death of a friend or family away from supporting this. People would not suffer for their dog or cat’s fatal disease.
Oregon is the only other state in the US that permits legal assisted suicide. Its requirement that participants be state residents was previously invalidated by a case that was successful.
Yet they are more than happy to let someone go through it. The majority of people in this nation support giving individuals access to MAiD because “we are now under the dictatorship of the minority.”
In accordance with Vermont’s Patient Choice and Control at the End of Life Act, which was approved in 2013, a patient may request a prescription for a drug that will expedite death if it has been determined that they have less than six months to live.
Oral and written petitions, witnesses, and a second medical opinion are all necessary for the procedure.
Senior counsel for Compassion and Choices, Amitai Heller, said that they are aiming to resolve the issue “as quickly as feasible.”
We have folks who are dying in close-by states who would really want to be able to use MAiD but who are unable to do so due of their zipcode, he added. It is definitely unjust.
“I hope other states take note of Oregon not enforcing the residents requirement and these cases aren’t required,” Dr. Barnard said.
Those opposed to medically assisted dying worry that states that allow the procedure would become tourist attractions for those looking to terminate their own lives, while surveys consistently indicate that a sizable majority of Americans support it.