In this interview Isabella Carr, a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School and Compassion & Choices’ engagement fellow, discusses her background and interest in end-of-life care. Isabella talks about working with fat people and addressing the unique needs and challenges they face at the end of life. Isabella notes the importance of providing compassionate care…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Thursday affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to undermine California’s legal definition of ‘brain death’ as ‘death.’ In 2018, Compassion & Choices filed an amicus brief in the case, Jonee Fonseca et al v. Karen Smith et al, defending California’s legal definition…

The following article appeared on Vox.com on December 16, 2015: Earl Blumenauer had become accustomed to losing. During the health reform debate, the Oregon congressman pushed a provision that would reimburse doctors for helping Medicare patients draw up advance care directives. Blumenauer’s proposal quickly became the most politically toxic section of a law rife with…

(Sacramento) Compassion & Choices filed an amicus brief in federal court late Friday in support of a lawsuit to protect the First Amendment free speech rights of death doulas in California. Death doulas (aka “end-of-life doulas”) provide important information to dying individuals and their loved ones and ensure dying individuals receive patient-directed care at the…

Compassion & Choices has filed an amicus brief in federal court in support of a lawsuit to protect the First Amendment free speech rights of death doulas in California. Death doulas (aka “end-of-life doulas”) provide important information to dying people and their loved ones, and ensure they receive patient-directed care at the end of life…

The following article appeared in U.S. News & World Report on November 3, 2017: Only in a handful of states, and only according to stringent guidelines, people with advanced terminal illness have the right to choose to take lethal medications prescribed and dispensed for the purpose of ending their life peacefully and on their terms….

(Olympia, WA)  Compassion & Choices Action Network and End of Life Washington expressed disappointment that the Washington Senate failed to advance ESHB1141, the Improving Access to Death with Dignity Act. The bill did not receive debate or a vote in the full Senate, despite the House previously passing the bill on February 25 with a bipartisan…

(Portland, OR – Nov. 19, 2014)  Compassion & Choices today launched a national initiative for expanded access to death with dignity on what would be Brittany Maynard’s 30th birthday. The organization released a new “call to action” video narrated by Brittany and featuring death-with-dignity activists from across the nation, including Anita Freeman of California, Sara Meyers…

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…

Despite knowing that death is the common thread that unites us all, we tend to keep the topic at arm’s length. Yet acknowledging the inevitability of death, contemplating what we wish the end to look like, and sharing our thoughts with loved ones can make our final moments profoundly meaningful. Aid-in-dying legislation, the availability of…