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• About Us
We are pleased to announce that Washington State is taking a progressive and compassionate step toward improving care for terminally ill adults. A broad coalition of Compassion & Choices affiliates, physicians, nurses, hospice patients, organizations and concerned residents is proposing an aid-in-dying initiative for the 2008 ballot. To qualify for the initiative, more than 200,000 signatures need to be collected by June 30, 2008. At least 3,000 volunteers statewide are needed to help gather signatures on a weekly basis. To help: Please call 206.633.2008 to pre-order petitions, volunteer in the campaign headquarters (Seattle) or make a donation. Renew Your Membership
Need to renew your Compassion & Choices membership? You can do it easily and securely on our Web site using your Visa or MasterCard. Barbara retired after forty years as a teacher. She had volunteered for many years with Compassion & Choices. She had an IRA and was nearing the time to take her required payout for this year in the amount of $2,000. Do you have questions about estate planning? Planned giving? Your will? Each month, we feature new articles and interactive features that cover such topics. We hope it will be a useful resource for you: Many years ago, Clara Lehman bought a home. Since she was so pleased with the home, she decided to buy stock in the company that builds and sells homes like it. Over the years, the stock has increased in value many times, but the value has been volatile.Gene and Carol White purchased stock in a small medical service company several years ago. The company has done well. A larger company is now discussing the possibility of buying the smaller company. Gene and Carol are looking for a way to save taxes. Mary Friendly grew up on a farm. When her parents passed away, she inherited the farm. When Mary was growing up, the farm was out in the country. The city expanded until city limits finally reached the farm. Several developers would like to build homes on the farmland. Compassion & Choices Seeks Volunteers in California and Chicago Interested in becoming a volunteer with our End-of-Life Consultation program? Our volunteers work locally with terminally ill clients and their families bringing support and information where it is most needed. Those interested in learning more about this volunteer opportunity are invited to contact: Jennifer Rue Compassion & Choices is a nonprofit organization working to improve care and expand choice at the end of life. As a national organization with over 60 chapters and 50,000 supporters, we help patients and their loved ones face the end of life with calm facts and choices of action during a difficult time. We also aggressively pursue legal reform to promote pain care, put teeth in advance directives and legalize aid in dying. PO Box 101810 |
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In this issue:
This newsletter is sent to more than 25,000 subscribers every month to give you updates from Compassion & Choices and keep you informed of issues surrounding end-of-life choice. We encourage you to forward this e-newsletter to an interested colleague or friend. Anyone can subscribe by sending an e-mail to info@compassionandchoices.org. If at any time you wish to unsubscribe, please follow the instructions at the bottom of this email. On January 9th, Washington State’s “It’s My Decision” committee kicked off Gov. Booth Gardner’s campaign to put an Oregon-style “Death with Dignity” law on the November ballot. Compassion & Choices and our Washington affiliate are partnering with Gov. Gardner and a host of local individuals and organizations to bring Washingtonians the same excellence in care and hope in choice Oregonians enjoy. The filing triggered massive media coverage in the Northwest and the nation. Newspapers, radio reports and television broadcasts described Gardner’s campaign and how the Washington Death with Dignity Act would work. Many news stories addressed how language matters in the proposed aid-in-dying legislation, showing sympathy for our concern that “suicide” is an inaccurate and inflammatory term. Others acknowledged that 10 years under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act show no ill effects. The Oregonian, Oregon’s largest newspaper, reversed 14 years of vehement editorial opposition and endorsed Gov. Gardner’s initiative. “Oregon’s experience proves legalizing aid in dying brings hope and comfort to the terminally ill, whether they ever use it or not,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, President of Compassion & Choices. “Washingtonians deserve the same. Freedom of conscience is fundamental to our nation’s greatness. To die in accordance with one’s deepest beliefs is surely part of that freedom.” To help: Please call 206.633.2008 to pre-order petitions, volunteer in the campaign headquarters (Seattle) or make a donation. • Visit the It's My Decision Web site • Read The Oregonian editorial • Read The Seattle Times article Experience Does Change Minds You could have knocked me over with a feather when I read the editorial in Oregon’s largest newspaper Jan. 13. Titled “Booth Gardner’s Final Campaign,” it praises Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, lists the positive impact on the quality of end-of-life care and applauds Gov. Gardner for filing a similar initiative in Washington State. You’ll need some context to fully appreciate the magnitude of this turnaround by The Oregonian’s editors. In 1994 The Oregonian delighted in running full-color pictures of Archbishop William Levada on the front page and quoting his denunciation of us as “murderers.” The editors came out strong against Measure 16, but that was nothing compared to the daily tirades they ran during the repeal campaign in 1997. Day after day they devoted an entire full-length column to hyperbolic invective against end-of-life choice. A torrent of dire predictions cascaded daily down the left-hand page washing out all trace of journalistic objectivity. Apparently the mountain of evidence from ten years of legal aid in dying, showing much benefit and no harm, has persuaded the editorial staff. And to their credit, they have the grace to admit they were wrong. Thank you … Sunday’s column warns Gardner that critics will “rip” into him, and confesses their own rip-roaring rhetoric “did not pan out.” Specifically, they set the record straight on the prediction of risk to vulnerable patients and people with disabilities. They admit that, “In a decade of experience with the law…no such abuses have shown up.” The paper’s timing is impeccable for a positive impact in Washington. In the upcoming campaign, opponents will hurl false accusations and wild stories of alleged wrongs in Oregon. The Oregonian’s confession that it was wrong, and legalizing aid in dying helps the dying, whether they use it or not, is most welcome. May the newspaper’s gracious admission of error promote a campaign based on proven facts, not irrational fears. • Share with a friend or family member • Make a secure online donation "Support. Educate. Advocate." The McLean County, Ill., chapter of Compassion & Choices clearly takes our key words to heart. The group’s outreach efforts bring an awareness of, and appreciation for, end-of-life issues to this central Illinois community. In December, the chapter’s secretary-treasurer, Dick Watts, successfully pitched a story to the local newspaper about the need to plan for the end of life. The Pantagraph article suggests people use holiday gatherings as opportunities to speak to loved ones about the issue, making it a timely and relevant story. Group president Betty Rademacher was pleasantly surprised by the impact of such positive press. The phone began to ring. Out in the community, people commented on the story. “A lot of people said, ‘that’s a really hard topic to think about, but seeing something like that makes me a little more comfortable,’” she said. Each year, the McLean County chapter carefully plans two community education programs. They invite experts to speak in a panel format on topics ranging from hospice care to end-of-life issues in emergency situations. The board regularly devotes one entire meeting to brainstorm topics for community programs, and you can bet they’re planning the next one already. Aid in dying gets support in Arizona A perennial bill patterned after Oregon's aid-in-dying law has a new advocate and a higher profile. The measure, sponsored for the past six years by Rep. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, would allow doctors to help terminally ill patients die by prescribing a lethal dose of drugs. "I'm a firm believer that people should have the right to control their own body," Lopez said. "I think it's between the individual and whatever they believe in." • Read the East Valley Tribune article Language key in Washington campaign The Seattle Times published an insightful piece addressing the importance words can play in the Washington campaign. The story is rare in the media because it pays significant attention to just how much language matters in people’s perception of an issue, especially this issue. It also gives our supporters a chance to distinguish the difference between the rational decision of aid in dying and the irrational, violent act of suicide. • Read The Seattle Times article Mexico City passes 'right to die' law Mexico City lawmakers have passed an end-of-life choice law that gives dying people the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. • Read the Banderas News article Mexico’s Archbishop Christophe Pierre predictably warned of a phantom slippery slope. "My concern," he says, "is that this law will be the path towards euthanasia, as there is a tendency in today’s world to interrupt the natural suffering of a sick person in his or her terminal phase and to bring about death."
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 Copyright Compassion & Choices 2008 |
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