President, Patient Choices at End of Life - Vermont

Vermont's Death with Dignity effort started in our living room, with my wife Ginny and our daughters, Nancy and Betsy, after watching my father suffer a difficult death. He asked me to help him, and there was nothing I could do. It frustrated me.

Until now. After eight years of Patient Choices at End of Life - Vermont's dedication to emulate Oregon and the state of Washington by enacting a Death with Dignity law, we've never been closer to success.

Opponents are vehement and determined, with reasons ranging from well-meaning to invasive. In their zeal, they distort the truth and raise false alarms. That's why those of us who seek to preserve life's decisions for ourselves and our loved ones must rally together to affirm this basic civil right.

Thoughtful, principled people such as you understand the profound importance of securing this human right. People who've watched a loved one suffer needlessly and pointlessly as I have. People brave enough to look toward their own future, and the dignity with which they hope to end a life well-lived.

Death with Dignity is a cause I feel in my heart, soul and conscience. It is worthy of every one of us who values life, treasures dignity, and wants never to be told by a stranger or a bureaucrat that our life is not our own, or that suffering is the property of their law or morality.

For your spouse, your parents, your grandparents, your children, your neighbors and yourself, take a stand. Recognize that even a right this personal must be fought for and won. Join me in my personal effort to bring a Death with Dignity law to Vermont and make a non-deductible contribution directly for Vermont today.

Thank you,

Dick Walters

President

Patient Choices at End of Life - Vermont