Links
Stories and Editorials
Dr. Peg Sandeen: My Husband Asked Me To Help Him Die. I Couldn’t Do It — And My Life Changed Forever (Huffington Post, January 5, 2023)
George Will: Medical aid in dying is for preventing a hideous death, not for truncating an unhappy life (The Washington Post, January 21, 2022)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu: When my time comes, I want the option of an assisted death (The Washington Post, October 6, 2016)
Blog by Scott Adams: I Hope My Father Dies Soon (November 23, 2013)
Arizona:
Your vote is important – Register to vote
Find your Arizona legislators (if you don’t know already)
Roster of Arizona State House Representatives
Roster of Arizona State Senators
Arizona Advance Directive Registry – Register your advance directives online.
Free Advance Directives from the Arizona Attorney General’s office [PDF file].
Another Arizona Advance Directive from Prepare for Your Care courtesy of the University of California.
Rider to Residential Agreement with Assisted-Living Facility [PDF file]. Use this form to make sure your Assisted Living Facility will honor your end-of-life choices before you sign a contract with them.
Arizona Organ Donor Registry – How to donate your organs for transplant or research.
Thoughtful Life Conversations is an affiliation of Arizona healthcare leaders, providers and community representatives dedicated to improving end of life care for Arizonians.
Videos:
February 2020 KPNX Phoenix Channel 12 town hall meeting on medical aid in dying. The 52-minute video features Mark Curtis as moderator of a pro-and-con panel discussion. Proponents of medial aid in dying were represented by our own Tom Fitch, MD, and Dwight Moore, PhD. Opponents were represented by Mohamed Zuhdi Jasser, MD, past president of the Arizona Medical Association.
Brittany Maynard Legislative Testimony (6 minutes). Moving testimony of a 29-year old woman with terminal brain cancer who in 2014 moved to Oregon to obtain medical aid in dying.
How to Die in Oregon (1 hr 47 min). 2011 documentary that tells the stories of those most intimately involved with the practice of medical aid in dying in the first state that implemented it.
Lonny Shavelson, MD: Myths About Medical Aid in Dying – What Have We Learned at the Bedside? (1 hr 40 min). Dr. Shavelson is Chair of the American Clinicians Academy on Medical Aid in Dying.
Prescription for Peace of Mind: A Documentary on Medical Aid in Dying (56 min).
Diane Rehm: When My Time Comes (PBS 2021 55 min). Spurred on by the death of her husband, Diane Rehm crosses the country to take an in-depth look at medical aid in dying. She speaks to people on all sides of the issue, uncovering the pros and cons, and the facts and the myths surrounding the subject.
PBS Frontline: “The Suicide Plan” TV documentary on right-to-die issues with an unfortunate title (it’s not suicide if you are dying anyway — it is aid in dying). 84 minutes.
End of Life Choices New York has a large list of videos about end of life choice issues.
Legal:
The laws in 11 jurisdictions with legal medical aid in dying:
- California End of Life Option Act, 2015 (legislation)
- Colorado End-of-Life Options Act, 2016 (ballot initiative)
- District of Columbia Death with Dignity Act, 2017 (legislation)
- Hawaii Our Care, Our Choice Act, 2018 (legislation)
- Maine Death with Dignity Act, 2019 (legislation)
- Montana, 2009 (Montana Supreme Court ruling)
- New Jersey Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act, 2019 (legislation)
- New Mexico Elizabeth Whitefield End-of-Life Options Act, 2921 (legislation)
- Oregon Death with Dignity Act, 1997 (ballot initiative)
- Vermont Patient Choice and Control at the End of Life Act, 2013 (legislation)
- Washington Death with Dignity Act, 2008 (ballot initiative)
Washington v. Glucksberg, complete text of the U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the right to die, issued June 26, 1997. Appealed from the 9th Circuit ruling in a Washington State case.
Vacco v. Quill, complete text of the U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding the right to die, issued June 26, 1997. Appealed from the 2nd Circuit ruling in a New York case.
Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking (VSED):
When medical aid in dying is not available, this is a legal alternative.
Book: Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: A Compassionate, Widely-Available Option for Hastening Death [Amazon] [Oxford University Press]
Videos: Completed Life Initiative (with authors of the above book): VSED as an Option to Hasten Death (90 minutes) and Clinical Considerations of Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (90 minutes).
Practical Guide to VSED [PDF]
End of Life Choices Oregon references on VSED
The Story of Susan Saran – From The Completed Life Journal is this story of a woman who fought for her right to determine her death and complete her life on her own terms after a fatal diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia. [PDF]
The VSED Choice – Phyllis Schacter wrote a detailed blog regarding VSED and her husband, “Alan’s Transition – VSED in 9 1/2 Days”
Hospice Care for Patients Who Choose to Hasten Death by Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking, from the Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing.
VSED: Questions and Answers, from the Patients Rights Council. [PDF]
Right to Medical Aid in Dying Organizations:
American Clinicians Academy on Medical Aid in Dying – Their mission is to make clinical information about medical aid in dying available to all clinicians, but they are also working to develop a referral system for patients to find cooperating physicians in all MAID states.
Compassion & Choices – National
Books:
Bauer-Maglin, N. & Perry, D., Final Acts: Death, Dying, and the Choices We Make. 2010. Amazon – Bookfinder
Butler, Katy, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death. 2014. Amazon – Bookfinder
Chell, Byron, Aid-in-Dying, The Ultimate Argument: The Clear Ethical Case for Physician Assisted Death.. 2014. Amazon – Bookfinder
Filene, Peter, In the Arms of Others: A Cultural History of the Right-to-Die in America. 1998. Amazon – Bookfinder
Gawande, Atul, MD, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. 2014. Amazon – Bookfinder
Green, Stefanie, M.D., This Is Assisted Dying: A Doctor’s Story of Empowering Patients at the End of Life. 2022. Amazon – Bookfinder
Hannig, Anita, The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America. 2022. Amazon – Bookfinder
Humphrey, Derek, Final Exit, The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying. 3rd Edition Revised, 2010. Amazon – Bookfinder
Lee, Barbara Coombs, Finish Strong: Putting YOUR Priorities First at Life’s End. 2018. Amazon – Bookfinder
Preston, Tom, M.D, Patient-Directed Dying: A Call For Legalized Aid In Dying For The Terminally Ill. 2007. Amazon – Bookfinder
Rehm, Diane, When My Time Comes: Conversations About Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have the Right to Determine When Life Should End. 2020. Amazon – Bookfinder
Miscellaneous:
2019 CNN article: More people in the US are dying at home than at the hospital
Hospice and Conflict Resolution by our own Althea Halchuck
The Conversation Project – Dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care.
Treatment of Pain and Suffering in the Terminally Ill – Complete online textbook by Alan D. Lieberson, M.D., J.D. Includes a chapter on “Voluntary Terminal Dehydration.”
Funeral Consumers Alliance – protecting a consumer’s right to choose a meaningful, dignified, affordable funeral.
Coming this summer: an open-access peer-reviewed journal.
