The day after the Vermont Senate passed legislation allowing doctors to provide lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it, it gave backers of the bill a scare.
Word spread through the Statehouse Thursday afternoon that Sen. Robert Hartwell, a key swing vote on the question, was asking for reconsideration of the vote to support the bill, in which Hartwell was in the majority on Wednesday.
With another supporter, Addison County Democratic Sen. Christopher Bray, out sick, there was speculation one more switched vote could reverse Wednesday's 17-13 vote in support of the measure.
But as the Senate convened, Hartwell withdrew his request for reconsideration, meaning the Senate's approval a day earlier stands.
