January 2022

In partnership with the Palliative Care and Pain Management Task, the Vermont Ethics Network has released the 2022 Palliative Care Task Force Report to the Vermont Legislature. The Palliative Care Task Force was created in 2009 with a goal of coordinating palliative care initiatives across the state, providing ongoing education to health care clinicians and consumers about palliative and end-of-life care, as well as ensuring access to those services when needed. Additionally, when barriers to access or gaps in services are identified, it was intended that the Task Force would make the legislature aware of such issues and, where appropriate, propose solutions.

This year, the report supports two legislative actions. The first, an extension of remote witnessing provisions for advance directives. The provision was initially passed in 2020 to allow advance directives to be completed while respecting physical distancing recommendations due to COVID-19 and remains an essential option for individuals seeking to complete their advance directive documents while maintaining their physical safety. With the existing provision due to sunset in June 2022, the Task Force recommends an extension of at least one year and consideration of making the provision permanent.

The second recommendation is in support of the changes to Vermont’s medical aid in dying law as proposed in bill S.74. This bill would enable telemedicine access to medical aid in dying and extend protections to health professionals that are not currently granted immunity under the existing law. “At present, Vermont’s law only provides explicit immunity for the prescribing physician, leaving the liability protections for other professionals (i.e. pharmacists, certifying second physician, etc.) necessarily involved in the process unclear” (2022 Report, page 2). These updates to Vermont’s law would be consistent with other states that have made medical aid in dying a legally available option and remove unnecessary barriers to access.

To learn more about this year's recommendations and the work that the Task Force does for Vermonters, read the full report on our website.

For further reading on the topic of medical aid in dying in Vermont, the 2022 Vermont Department of Health Report Concerning Patient Choice at the End of Life is also available on the VEN website. The report summarizes Vermont data on medical aid in dying since the passage of Act 39 in 2013.

If you have reviewed your directive, you may have found that some your goals, values and wishes have changed. If this the case, then it is time to update your advance directive. Depending on the number and nature of the changes, there are some options for how to update your directive.

Throughout the fall of 2021, the Vermont Ethics Network hosted a 5-week Virtual Ethics Education Series via Zoom. In each of these 75-minute sessions, presenters and participants dove into ethically complex cases and questions to expand their knowledge of bioethics. Recordings of all five presentations are now available on the VEN website.

Featured Presentations Include:

• Tangled Terminology: Avoiding the Ethical Pitfalls of Misnomers in Decision-making Language - Cynthia Bruzzese, MPA, MSB, HEC-C
• Exceptions to the Rule: When Minors Get to Make Their Own Medical Decisions - Bob Macauley, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, HEC-C
• Determining Capacity on the Frontlines - Evie Marcolini, MD, FAAEM, FACEP, FCCM
• What I Hate About Advance Directives: A Panel Discussion - Linda Hurley, MS, RN & Belle Matheson, APRN
• Let's Talk Refusals - Sally Bliss, RN, MSB, HEC-C ; Erika Smart, JD and Stas Amato, MD

HEALTH DECISIONS is a publication of the Vermont Ethics Network.

The mission of the Vermont Ethics Network is to advance ethics in health care.