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Newsletter January 1, 2023
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This Issue's Contents
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New Year Legislative Update by Leesa Stevens, Legislative Advocacy Leader
On January 3rd, all 90 of our 2023 Arizona State legislators will be sworn into office. By my count 43 will be new to the legislature and 47 will be returning members. It is a different and much slower procedure for bill submittals after an election. Thus, we do not yet know who will be assigned to which committees and have not definitively decided who to ask to be our sponsors. We do know that the new Senate President is Warren Peterson and new Speaker of the House is Ben Toma, and we hope they will distribute our bills to the Health and Human Services Committees as quickly as possible. Both of the legislators have MAID positions which are unknown to us at this time.
We have spent the past couple of months updating our bill language looking at amendments from other states and consulting with our National partners, Compassion & Choices and Death with Dignity. Aside from adding in some clarifications we have two changes worth noting.
The first change is the removal of the second oral request from the requirements to receive a prescription, past cases having determined that one oral request is sufficient. The second, and more major change is that we have added in telemedicine as an alternative to in-person visits for diagnosis, consultation or treatment which requires live audio and video interaction over a secure connection. It will provide much better access to MAID, especially in Arizona, much of which is rural. Telemedicine proved to be successful during the pandemic and is certainly here to stay. We join Vermont in offering this alternative.
Mid-month, look for a communication from us about contacting your legislators. This will be critical for our efforts to get the bill heard in committee. With so many new legislative faces and the addition of our new lobbyist, this should be a very busy legislative session for us!
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You Can Promote our Podcast! By Marie MacWhyte, Digital Marketing Lead
For those of you who have an android phone, download Spotify from the Google Playstore. Then search for our podcast. Click to follow, and listen to our episodes. Then give us a 5 star rating and write a review.
If you use an iPhone, find us in Apple Podcasts, and again, Follow or subscribe, and give us a 5 star rating and write a review. This will help more people find our podcast. |
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Podcasts are a great way to learn about a wide range of topics and stay up-to-date with current events and issues. AZELO's "Current Perspectives of Medical Aid in Dying" is a podcast that explores this complex and controversial topic. If you are interested in helping to make this podcast more popular, there are a few things you can do:
1. Spread the word about the podcast: One of the most effective ways to increase the popularity of a podcast is to share it with others. You can tell your friends, family, and colleagues about the podcast and encourage them to listen to it. You can also share the podcast on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or recommend it to relevant online communities or forums. 2. Post a positive review or rating on our podcast's page on platforms like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This will help others discover the podcast and give them a sense of what they can expect from the content. 3. Share specific episodes: If there are specific episodes of the podcast that you particularly enjoyed or found informative, consider sharing them with others. This could be through social media, email, or in-person recommendations. Sharing specific episodes can help introduce new listeners to the podcast and give them a taste of what it has to offer.
By following these tips, you can help make the "Current Perspectives of Medical Aid in Dying" podcast more popular and help it reach a wider audience. Whether you share the podcast with friends and family, leave a review, or share specific episodes, your efforts can make a big difference in helping our podcast grow.
Finally, if you are not a fan of podcasts, you can still listen to our episodes on our website at azendoflifeoptions.org/podcasts/
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2022 - A Year of Progress for AZELO By Dwight Moore, Chair |
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I am excited to share with you our progress to this point and why now is a time for real optimism about the upcoming months. As the 2023 legislature gets going in January, we are prepared to submit a bill to pass Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) in Arizona. We have revised the language of the bill, spruced up our written messages (our Trifold, Doctors and Nurses for Dignity Letters), and are close to identifying the sponsors of the bill. |
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Additionally, Arizona End of Life Options is proud to announce that we have engaged the services of a lobbyist group to help us gain deeper access to the key decision makers who will consider our Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) bill. For the months of January and February they will be helping us contact legislators, members of the Health and Human Service Committees (House and Senate), key members of Governor Katie Hobbs’ staff, and other influencers.
We are also proud to report that we have gone from 1300 subscribers of the newsletter to 3700. One of our goals is to educate the Arizona public about Medical Aid in Dying and this increase in subscribership allows us to spread the word about this important choice at the end of life.
Furthermore, we have 370 Action Team Members who have signed up to volunteer helping us reach our goal of legalizing MAID through legislative contacts, educational programs, letter writing, endorsements, and rallies.
Finally, we have installed Action Network which allows us to quickly send requests to our volunteers and to send messages almost instantaneously to the legislators. We consolidated three data bases we had been using into one, allowing more efficient communication and outreach.
Many thanks to the champions and volunteers of these projects. We are well positioned to focus on influencing the legislature during the months of January and February.
The key decision about our bill comes from the Health and Human Services committees. We want them to give the bill a hearing. A hearing is necessary for it to move to the next step. Over the past years we have not gotten a hearing in those committees.
So, over the next month or so, look for our “Action Alerts.” The investment from you is 10-15 minutes of your time to influence the key decision makers of Arizona. These alerts are your opportunity to live in a state where death with dignity is a real choice for our terminally ill. |
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Legislative District Action Teams, Join Today! By Marie MacWhyte, AZELO Digital Marketing Lead |
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Arizona is divided into 30 Legislative Districts (LD), each one represented by one State sentator and two House representatives.
These are the leaders who can pass our Medical Aid in Dying bill into law.
At Arizona End of Life Options, we have formed our Action Teams along these same lines, so if you are in LD 1, for example, you'll be in Action Team 1 as well. |
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Getting a bill passed in the Legislature will take a groundswell of public pressure, so all our voices are needed. So please don't just sit by thinking other constituents are accomplishing the task. We need everyone to participate. So if you haven't done so already, click the link below to join your action team, and then look for your monthly action alerts. Join our team of dedicated constituents and help us accomplish our goals which are to 1) Educate the Arizona public and our lawmakers about the facts of Medical Aid in Dying and 2) Urge the passage of this law.
Join your Action Team; Help us Legalize MAID in AZ!
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"Request to Speak" (RTS) to our AZ Lawmakers
In early 2023, we will have a bill number and YOU can help us tell our Arizona legislators you support the bill by voting “thumbs up.” |
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The system is called “Request to Speak” or RTS and is available throughout the legislative session as a way to let our lawmakers know where we stand on our bill. |
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RTS is designed to allow the public to register an opinion via computer on bills assigned to committee agendas and/or to request to testify in person at a committee hearing. The RTS program allows you to participate from your home or office using your computer.
When the committee is in session, the committee members, and the public, will see a list of names of people who have registered an opinion, if you wish to speak or not, who you are representing, and comments you may leave in the comment box. This information is also available if a person searches past committee agendas. Legislators will see your bill position throughout the process.
To participate, you'll need to activate an RTS account and the nice folks at Civic Engagement Beyond Voting (CEBV) can do this for you. They also have very user-friendly training sessions on how to use the RTS system, if you need one, once your account is activated.
CEBV is a non-partisan grassroots group and they have registered over 12,000 Arizonans for Request to Speak throughout the state. Go to https://www.cebv.us/ and ‘click’ on the ‘Request to Speak’ tab to get started. This is a simple way for a volunteer to become an activist without leaving the house! |
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Upcoming Events
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Six Choices at the End of Life: Real Patients, Real Stories
Presented by AZELO Chair, Dr Dwight Moore, this zoom presentation describes the six choices people have about how they will exit this life and makes a case for considering Medical Aid in Dying as one of the choices. Audience participation is encouraged!
Register by clicking this link:
Your zoom link will be emailed to you, so check your spam folder if you don't see it!
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How to Advocate for Medical Aid in Dying in Arizona |
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This webinar can be described as MAID 101. We will take a detailed look at what the medical aid in dying (MAID) law is all about: the qualifications and the safeguards. We'll debunk the misconceptions and confirm the facts surrounding this topic which is often misunderstood by voters and lawmakers alike. |
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Want to feel comfortable talking to friends and family about MAID? By the end of this class, you will feel confident advocating for a MAID law in Arizona.
Monday, January 23rd from 6:00 - 7:00 pm Arizona Time
Register by clicking this link:
Your zoom link will be emailed to you, so check your spam folder if you don't see it! |
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Classifieds - Help Wanted
AZELO's Digital Marketing needs a team! Please consider helping if you have a computer and internet and interest in any of the following jobs.
Transcription Editor After each podcast episode is recorded, it is uploaded to create an online transcript. The transcript then needs to be edited and minor corrections made. You will need a computer and internet service to complete this task. Time required: 1 hour per podcast episode.
Social Media Marketer Our MAID facts are posted on Instgram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you already use any of these social media platforms, you can easily help us spread news about MAID.
Graphic artist If you are already familiar with Adobe Photoshop or another graphic art program, we could use your skills to help us with social media posts and Podcast coverart.
Audio and Video Editors We use Premiere Pro to edit our webinars and podcasts If you are proficient with Premiere Pro or other editing software we could use your help!
If interested please reach out to Marie MacWhyte, Digital Marketng Lead |
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Click on this blue box to be taken to our donation form. If you have used this online form in the past, you may need to clear your cache/browser history if you get an error message. Then try again.
However, if you'd rather mail in a check, please send it to:
Death with Dignity Political Fund PO Box 2009 Portland, OR 97208
Please note on the check memo line "AZ C4" to ensure that it is properly accounted for.
Thank you, Dear Donors!
Your generous gifts are being put to good use! |
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Arizona End of Life Options
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