Legislator dies using medical suicide law he helped pass
By LISA RATHKE
Associated Press
The wife of a former Vermont legislator and House majority leader says he has died with the help of a law he himself helped pass that allows the terminally ill to end their own lives. Ellen McKay Jewett says husband Willem Jewett died Jan. 12 at his home in Ripton at age 58. He had mucosal melanoma. In the days before his death, he supported changes to the 2013 law to make it easier for terminally ill people to navigate and get a prescription. Jewett was a Democrat, a lawyer and a competitive cyclist who served in the Vermont House from 2003 to 2016.
