A terminally ill Connecticut woman ended her life in Vermont on Thursday in what her husband says was the "comfortable and peaceful" death she wanted. Lynda Bluestein, 76, had pushed for Vermont to change its medically assisted suicide law to allow assisted suicide for nonresidents. The law was changed in May last year, two months after the state reached a settlement with Bluestein that allowed her to use the law. She died after taking a lethal dose of prescribed medication. Her husband, Paul, said her last words were, "I'm so happy I don't have to do this (suffer) anymore," in an email the group Compassion & Choices shared with the AP.
Bluestein was diagnosed with stage four ovarian and fallopian tube cancer in February 2021, NBC Connecticut reports. "She was going through a lot of pain, and that was hard to watch," son Jacob Shannon tells the station. He says he's "grateful" that she was able to die peacefully on her own terms. "Having some sort of choice in how this was going to end was her last wish," he says. Vermont is one of 10 states, plus Washington, DC, with assisted suicide laws. The Vermont law, which has numerous safeguards to prevent abuse, allows doctors to prescribe lethal medication to people expected to die of an incurable illness within six months.
Bluestein told the AP last year that she didn't want to die like her mother, who passed away in a hospital bed after a long illness. She said she wanted to die surrounded by loved ones. "I want to live the way I always have, and I want my death to be in keeping with the way I wanted my life to be always," she said. "I wanted to have agency over when cancer had taken so much for me that I could no longer bear it. That's my choice." Her push for Connecticut to adopt an assisted suicide law was unsuccessful, but state lawmakers say the effort is slowly moving forward. (More assisted suicide stories.)
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