Vermont was the first state to enact this Law through legislative action; it permits some terminally ill patients to determine the time of their own death.
The law protects doctors from liability for providing a lethal prescription for a terminally ill, competent adult in compliance with the statute's restrictions.
They began by studying the Vermont legislative process, and based on numerous meetings in their living room a small group formed a 501(c)(4) corporation.
Their daughter, Betsy Walkerman, an attorney who is now President of PCV, drafted the first Vermont bill following the pattern of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.
Both Death with Dignity National Center and Compassion and Choices helped with advice, telephoning, funding, and connections to Oregon people who flew in to testify in legislative committee hearings.
In 2004, at the request of the legislature, the Vermont Legislative Counsel studied Oregon's Death with Dignity law and published a report detailing its efficacy and positive outcomes.
Some PCV Board members spoke at Rotary Clubs, at gatherings at the homes of supporters and at professional meetings of healthcare providers.
PCV expanded its database of supporters by setting up DWD displays and collecting signatures at Town Meetings, which take place every year throughout Vermont in the month of March.
They understood that for the terminally ill patient, just knowing that it's legal to avoid a protracted painful dying process brings peace of mind.
The Governor, the House Speaker, legislators and thousands of ordinary Vermonters came together to establish the Patient Choice at End of Life Act.
[7] During the first hearing in the case on Nov. 8, the plaintiffs’ attorneys suggested his physician clients would be willing to “…tell a patient that they can Google assisted suicide on their cell phone and that's a reasonably available source of information…”[8] “The notion that doctors could fulfill their professional duty to ensure patients can make fully-informed decisions by Googling to learn about their end-of-life care options is the height of irresponsibility,” said Linda Waite-Simpson, Vermont state director for Compassion & Choices.
“But these doctors contend their personal beliefs should trump their patients’ rights when it comes to simply referring them to a healthcare professional to advise them about all their end-of-life care options.
“Physicians should not impose their personal religious values on their patients by preventing them from receiving information about all of their end-of-life care options.”[11] On April 5, 2017, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled that two medical organizations failed to show that their members — two doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist who oppose the law for religious and ethical reasons — faced any harm and dismissed their legal challenge of Vermont's 2013 end-of-life law.