Vermont will become the fourth state to approve the practice that supporters call “death with dignity” and opponents call “physician-assisted suicide.” The Vermont House and Senate passed a bill this week that includes elements of an Oregon-style law that spells out procedures for patients and doctors to follow before the drugs can be prescribed.
The restrictions would sunset in three years, leaving a stripped-down version on the books that protects physicians and family members from criminal liability. Our guests to discuss what this law will mean for Vermont are lobbyist Michael Sirotkin, who worked in favor of the bill, and Paul Harrington of the Vermont Medical Society, which opposes it.
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Also in the program, new research that scientists are calling a break-through in understanding migraine headaches. We talk with Dr. Robert Shapiro, professor of neurological sciences at the UVM College of Medicine, about the connection he's made between a mutated gene and susceptibility to migraine.
