A special report from Amy Shollenberger, Grassroots Organizer for Patient Choices Vermont, about the recent accomplishments and current status of the Vermont's Death with Dignity legislative effort:

Patient Choices Vermont has been working hard toward the first ever legislatively passed Death with Dignity Act.

This past winter, the bill was introduced into both sides of the Vermont Statehouse (H.274 in the House and S.103 in the Senate) with a large number of sponsors, including prominent members of all three major political parties — Democrat, Republican, and Progressive — and it's well positioned for passage during the 2012 legislative session.

The author writes under the pseudonym Jay D. Halsted because he works for a diocese part-time in the Southwest. Halsted is a retired journalist who volunteers in nursing homes.

No one gets out of this world alive. That's a fact. And fear of dying is death's side effect.

Many of us have watched loved ones suffer for years. My stepfather, for example, spent 10 years as an invalid with emphysema. He lost one leg from lack of circulation. He suffered a stroke that took away his ability to speak. Every breath was torture. Ten years of suffering! Did he want to die? You bet. When the doctor asked him if there was anything he wanted, he said, "My shotgun." He didn't get it.

Death with Dignity takes away the fear. It doesn't mean we're going to rush to the grave. It means we can face the future knowing we never have to be imprisoned by our bodies.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops would have us remain the slaves of pain. On June 16, 2011, the bishops approved a statement condemning physician-assisted death. Their reasons: