US state of Vermont approves euthanasia

Legislators in the US state of Vermont approved a "death-with-dignity" bill enabling terminally ill patients to take their own lives with lethal medication requested from their doctors, AFP reported.

The liberal-minded rural New England state has become the third in the nation, after Oregon and Washington, to allow doctor-assisted suicide - but the first to do so by legislative process rather than a voter-initiated referendum.

Governor Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, has stated he will sign the End of Life Choice Bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives in the state capital Montpelier by a 75-65 vote.

Under the Vermont bill, terminally ill patients who are given no more than six months to live can ask their doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to hasten their death.

Several safeguards are built into the law, including a requirement for two medical opinions, the option of a psychiatric examination and a 17-day waiting period before a life-ending prescription can be filled.

"The family is encouraged to be involved, but it's not mandated," lobbyist Michael Sirotkin of Patient Choices Vermont, which has campaigned for 10 years for a death-with-dignity law, told AFP.