VSED as a path to MAiD: Stepping stone or quicksand?

Abstract: Medical aid in dying (MAID) is legal in 10 states, nearly all of which originally mandated a waiting period of at least 15 days. This requirement effectively precluded voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) from serving as the qualifying diagnosis, since the patient would have died from dehydration while waiting for the prescription. Recently, however, some states have either shortened the waiting period or allowed it to be waived if a patient is expected to die before it is completed. This has led some to endorse “VSED as a path to MAID,” whereby a patient with a life expectancy of greater than six months—such as a person with early dementia—who initiates VSED would be eligible not only for hospice but also for MAID, thereby sparing them the protracted process of death from VSED.
In this panel, a law professor will review recent developments in state law. Then a philosopher who has co-edited a book on VSED will describe the nuances of VSED, while also exploring the respective risks to the acceptance of both VSED and MAiD from linking them. A palliative medicine physician/ethicist will then examine the complexities of VSED as providing a qualifying diagnosis for both hospice enrollment and MAiD eligibility, based on concerns for verifiability and stability of patient intention. Finally, a health care ethicist in a faith-based system will examine the complexities of VSED with intention to proceed to MAiD, when the latter (though legal by state law) is not an option in that system.