CONTACT: Sean Crowley
202-550-6524, scrowley@compassionandchoices.org 

by Compassion & Choices staff

Historic Achievement is Breakthrough in Death-with-Dignity Movement

(Washington, D.C. – May 20, 2013) Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin’s signing into law at 2pm today of the nation’s first death-with-dignity bill passed by a legislature is a “breakthrough” moment, according to the nation’s leading end-of-life choice advocacy group, Compassion & Choices. Vermont also will become the first eastern state and fourth state nationwide where aid in dying clearly is legal and accessible starting immediately.

“This historic achievement is a political breakthrough that will boost support for death-with-dignity bills nationwide,” said Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee, an ER and ICU nurse and physician assistant for 25 years who co-authored the nation’s first Death-with-Dignity law in Oregon and was a senior advisor on the successful campaign to pass the Death-with-Dignity law in Washington state, both of which were approved by citizen-passed ballot initiatives and served as models for the Vermont legislation.

The Vermont law will let dying, mentally competent people determine when they have endured enough suffering and empowers them to end their lives with dignity. Specifically, it will provide criminal, civil and professional protections for physicians who prescribe medication to mentally competent, terminally ill patients that they can ingest to achieve a peaceful death.

“Gov. Shumlin and Vermont legislators have shattered a barrier by becoming the first politicians to show the courage to enact a death-with-dignity law,” added Coombs Lee.  “Given the high margin of public support for end-of-life choices nationwide, it is only amatter of time before legislatures in Massachusetts,New Jersey, and other states that are currently considering death-with-dignity bills enact them into law.”

Oregon and Washington enacted aid-in-dying laws thru citizen-passed ballot initiatives in 1994 and 2008, respectively. In 2009, the Montana Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by Compassion & Choices, Baxter v. Montana, that the state’s public policy supports mentally competent, terminally ill patients being able to choose aid in dying.

The Vermont law will have requirements similar to the Oregon and Washington laws, but the Vermont requirements will expire after a three-year period. Then the Vermont law will follow the model in Montana, where professional practice standards have successfully governed the practice of aid in dying.

CONTACT: Sean Crowley, 202-550-6524
scrowley@compassionandchoices.org

Politics Shift as Lawmakers Embrace Nationwide Support for End-of-Life Choices

(Washington, D.C. – May 13, 2013) The nation’s leading end-of-life choice advocacy group, Compassion & Choices, praised the Vermont legislature for becoming the first legislative body in the nation to approve death-with-dignity legislation. Gov. Peter Shumlin has vowed to sign the bill into law.

“This historic legislative victory proves that the aid-in-dying issue is no longer the third rail of politics. In fact, it’s a winning issue on which Gov. Shumlin campaigned,” said Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee, an ER and ICU nurse and physician assistant who co-authored the nation’s first Death-with-Dignity law in Oregon and was a senior advisor for the nation’s second Death-with-Dignity law in Washington state, both approved by ballot initiatives. “We congratulate Patient Choices Vermont for its leadership of this multi-year campaign. Their success shows aid in dying has become a legislative winner.”

“Legislators now are embracing the high margin of public support for end-of-life choices nationwide,” added Coombs Lee.  “This bill’s passage should enable legislatures in Massachusetts, New Jersey and other states that are considering aid-in-dying bills to approve them.”

The Vermont bill provides criminal, civil and professional protections for physicians who prescribe medication to mentally competent, terminally ill patients that they can ingest to achieve a peaceful death.  It has requirements similar to the Oregon and Washington laws, but the Vermont requirements would expire after a 3-year period and then professional practice standards would govern the practice of aid in dying.

“Professional practice standards have successfully governed aid in dying in Montana for three years, and for the past two years in Hawaii,” said Compassion & Choices Legal Affairs Director Kathryn Tucker, who testified before both the Vermont House and Senate in favor of the bill and was co-counsel in a landmark case, Baxter v. Montana, in which the Montana Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that the public policy of the state supports mentally competent, terminally ill patients being able to choose aid in dying. “Professional practice standards guide all of medicine and it is appropriate for aid in dying to be governed in this manner.”

by Compassion & Choices staff
May 2, 2013

TV Host Calls End-of-Life Choice for Terminally Ill “Personal Decision”

(Washington, D.C.) Emmy Award-winning television host Montel Williams advocates for end-of-life choice, including aid in dying, in the spring issue of Compassion & Choices Magazine. Williams, who revealed in 1999 that he has multiple sclerosis (MS) and is an active healthcare advocate, expressed support for the right of terminally ill people with unbearable suffering to control the time and manner of their death.

Appearing on the cover and in the magazine’s “Voice of Choice” column, Williams states, “I do not believe people should be deciding what level of pain other people should endure, especially knowing they have no chance for recovery. It is a personal decision.”

As the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization working to improve care and expand choice at the end of life, Compassion & Choices advocates access to aid in dying for qualified individuals. Mentally competent, terminally ill patients should be allowed to receive a prescription from their doctor for medication to self-administer if they choose, to achieve a peaceful death. Opponents inaccurately label this “assisted suicide.” Williams debunks that description.

“It is not assisting suicide. I have thought this out, including for myself, and I’ve had many discussions with members of my family. … I’m also aware that my disease is going to progress. And there may be a day when I am told I have a finite amount of time left on this planet and when I may be in incredible pain. So when that time comes, I don’t care what anybody thinks or calls it. It’s my decision. And if I choose to go, then that’s my call.”

Like Compassion & Choices, Williams encourages families to discuss end-of-life matters before a crisis occurs. He advises that doctors participate in those discussions – but “their opinion or advice shouldn’t be given any more weight than that of others who need to be included in the discussion, including the patient’s sage counsel, psychiatrists, psychologists, their clergy or family members.”

“We are grateful to Montel for using his eloquent voice to inform people about the importance of end-of-life planning and of their right to control life’s final chapter,” said Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee, a nurse and physician assistant for 25 years before becoming a private attorney and a Chief Petitioner of the first-in-the nation Oregon Death with Dignity Act in 1994. “Modern medicine has produced many life-saving achievements. Medicine can always do more. The question is whether they should, when a patient’s hope centers on dignity and comfort.”

Support for end-of-life choice is consistently strong in so-called red states and blue states and across demographic groups and religions. This strong support has held steady for two decades. A January 2011 Harris poll found that more than two-thirds (70%) of U.S. adults agree that “individuals who are terminally ill, in great pain and who have no chance for recovery, have the right to choose to end their own life.” A poll of likely New Jersey voters released last week found nearly two-thirds (63%) support allowing mentally competent, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to receive a prescription for medication to end their suffering.

The full interview of Montel is available here:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/3d9a13e7#/3d9a13e7/24

The online edition of Compassion & Choices Magazine is available here:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/3d9a13e7#/3d9a13e7/1

Materials for advance healthcare planning are available here:

http://www.compassionandchoices.org/what-we-do/advance-planning/

Contact: Timothy White, (201) 465-8038, twhite@beckermanpr.com

Support strong among divergent interest groups; issue transcends party lines and religion

(Trenton, NJ) – A recent public opinion survey conducted by Momentum Analysis, a public opinion research firm based in Washington, D.C., shows strong support among New Jersey voters for death with dignity both as a personal option and as legislation.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) support allowing mentally competent, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to receive a prescription for medication to end their suffering. Support is very deep, with nearly half (49%) strongly in favor of supporting death with dignity. Majorities across party lines and religions support death with dignity.

“This poll shows that opinions about death with dignity among New Jersey voters are for the most part consistent with public opinions in other states throughout the country,” said Mark Dann, New Jersey Campaign Manager for Compassion & Choices. “Regardless of race, religion, political affiliations or socio-economic conditions, people in New Jersey value their right to have end-of-life choices and to preserve their dignity in the instances of terminal illness,” Dann added.

Nearly two-thirds of New Jersey voters (65%) want the legal option for a peaceful death if they are terminally ill; far fewer report they would not want this option (25%). Majorities across party, racial, regional, gender, socio-economic status and other groupings report they want to have this option for a measure of control in their own life.

“It’s not everyday you see an issue with such widespread support across demographic groups,” said Margie Omero, President of Momentum Analysis, the firm that conducted the survey. “Voters don’t just support death with dignity legislation, but as an option for themselves personally. That’s very powerful.”

“A good death is not a failure of medical care.  It is a goal that probably most of us will strive to achieve when the time comes,” said Dr. Stacey Bachrach of Flemington, NJ. “Legislative measures offering comprehensive end-of-life options will help make this goal a reality for more New Jerseyans.”

Support for death with dignity is favorable among New Jersey voters who also support Pope Francis (51%), among those who support the Right to Life Movement (46%) and among those who support Governor Christie (67%).

The Death with Dignity Act (Assembly Bill No. 3328 and Senate Bill No. 2259) was introduced in New Jersey in the fall of 2012. In February 2013, the Assembly Health Committee released the bill with a favorable 7-2-2 vote.

This poll results are based on a survey of 601 likely November 2013 voters in New Jersey. The survey, commissioned by the national non-profit Compassion & Choices, was conducted by telephone during March 20-24, 2013. Voters from the state voter file with a history of voting in odd-year elections were contacted and further screened to include only likely voters. The margin of error for the sample overall is +/-4.1 percentage points.

Choice at life’s end scored a major victory yesterday! The Montana Senate defeated a bill to criminalize aid in dying, which was made legal by the 2009 state Supreme Court ruling in Baxter v. Montana.

As a Compassion & Choices supporter, you share credit for this impressive win. We prevailed against anti-choice zealots who worked for more than three years to undo the landmark Baxter ruling and quash the right of terminally ill Montanans to die with dignity on their own terms.

Make no mistake: This is a resounding victory for Compassion & Choices, our supporters in Montana and across the country, and for the principle of self-determination. Please take a few moments to savor it and the extraordinary effort that made it possible.

1) The Montana Senate actually reversed course to defeat HB505. We called it the “Physician Imprisonment Act of 2013″ because it would have incarcerated doctors for up to 10 years for providing aid in dying to terminal patients. Once predicted to pass, the bill was defeated instead, by a bipartisan vote of 27-23.

2) The Senate vote was the direct result of sustained on-the-ground activism by Compassion & Choices Montana. For more than two years, this dynamic campaign fielded staff and volunteers to alert residents to the threat of HB505. Its multi-tactical campaign included:

• an education drive that reached tens of thousands of Montanans in all corners of the state and encouraged them to telephone their legislators and otherwise make their voice heard;
• radio and print ads urging Montanans to contact their legislators to oppose the bill;
• outreach to newspaper editorial boards and other opinion leaders, and an aggressive letter-to-the-editor campaign;
• mobilization of doctors to publicly oppose the bill and affirm their support for the practice of aid in dying;
• in-person lobbying of lawmakers in Helena and their home districts;
• social media and other efforts to spread the word and summon voters to action.

3) A high point in our campaign came when long-time supporter Dr. Eric Kress, a family physician at Western Montana Clinic, publicly disclosed that he had written aid-in-dying prescriptions for three of his patients since the 2009 Baxter decision.

Dr. Kress narrated our radio ad, appeared in print ads, authored a powerful op-ed for The Missoulian newspaper and delivered courageous testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. We cannot overstate the importance of his eloquent and persuasive support, and the influence it had on lawmakers and the public alike.

4) We backed up our advocacy with a poll of Montana voters, which confirmed that 73 percent opposed HB505 and 67 percent were less likely to vote for a legislator who supported it.

5) The victory maintains Montana’s status as the third state where aid in dying is expressly legal. That status was the direct result of Compassion & Choices’ landmark Baxter v. Montana lawsuit, which confirmed that physician aid in dying did not violate state public policy in Montana.

6) The victory also underscores the growing level of public willingness to take personal action to defend the right to death with dignity, and to oppose zealots who seek to pass draconian laws like HB505 and use misinformation, scare tactics, moral judgments and other means to deny people their most sacred rights at life’s end.

Special thanks goes to the thousands of Montanans who took action to defeat HB505, and to hundreds of Compassion & Choices Montana volunteers who worked the phones, knocked on doors, talked to neighbors and loved ones, and otherwise devoted themselves to make sure that truth and reason prevailed.

Without our shared commitment, HB505 would be law today. The fact that it isn’t is a true testament to the leadership of Compassion & Choices Montana and the dedication of our wonderful supporters.