Connecticut Woman with Terminal Illness Chooses to End Life in Vermont

Lynda Bluestein, a terminally ill woman from Connecticut, utilized Vermont's law permitting medically assisted suicide to end her life peacefully. Vermont, which had a residency requirement for this law, settled a lawsuit in 2022 allowing Bluestein, a non-resident, to use the law. Subsequently, Vermont became the first state to officially allow out-of-state terminally ill patients to seek medically assisted suicide. Bluestein, an activist, had advocated for similar laws in Connecticut and New York and wanted to ensure her death was on her own terms, unlike her mother's prolonged hospital death.