June 2024

Celebrity Endorsements

by Mary Ganapol

Southern Arizona Lead

You may be familiar with the wonderful endorsement by nonagenarian DOLORES HUERTA.  Her activism in her native New Mexico no doubt helped pass the MAID law there in 2021.  Because she also has close ties to Arizona, she has offered to endorse a MAID bill here if we ever get a public hearing.

Another lesser known endorsement is by RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN when the MAID bill was passed in Hawai’I in 2019.   Not a doctor in real life, but you may remember him as dreamy Dr. Kildare; not a real priest but you may remember him as Father Ralphde Bricassart in the 1980’s miniseries The Thorn Birds.    Here’s a nice PSA that he recorded about the MAID Hawai’i law known as OCOCA – the “Our Care, Our Choice Act.” 

This short PSA has had over 133,000 views!  Richard Chamberlain's PSA on YouTube

Lastly, the Winter 2024 newsletter from Final Exit Network features an article about an endorsement by British film and television star DIANA RIGG.  Though she appeared in dozens of plays, movies and television shows in the UK, American audiences loved her as the gorgeous Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers and her role as Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones.  With the help of her daughter, she recorded a plea to pass a MAID law in the UK as she was dying of cancer in 2020. 

Here's a short video about her end of life advocacy: 

Diana Rigg’s Daughter Reveals the Suffering of Her Final Days

Question:  Do you know of a celebrity endorsement we could feature in a future newsletter?

Email details to:  m.ganapol@AzEndOfLifeOptions.or

Slow but steady progress in New York's MAID bill

First introduced in 2016, the “Medical Aid in Dying Bill” in New York is still alive.   As the Death with Dignity website states, there is still “cautious optimism” that this might be THE year for MAID to become accessible to New Yorkers. Next door in New Jerey, it has been available since 2019. 

Endorsements from the New York State Bar Association, the New York State Academy of Family Physicians and the Medical Society of the State of New York are hugely beneficial in moving the conversation forward. 

And an interview on NPR always helps too!  A segment of The Brian Lehrer Show, broadcast via WNYC, featured David Leven, Senior Consultant to End of Life Choices New York, and Compassion & Choices’ Corinne Carey, Senior Campaign Director for New York/New Jersey along with excellent audience comments.    

You can listen to the segment here: 

Brian Lehrer Show:  Advocates Push for Medical Aid in Dying Bill

Take Me Out Feet First

A new documentary about medical aid in dying has hit mainstream:
“Take Me Out Feet First” is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Here’s the link to the movie website to learn more about the filmmakers and the idea of the film.
https://www.outfeetfirst.com/

It’s so important that those outside the right-to-die movement have a chance to stream this type of movie. Five episodes feature patients and their families and friends talking about their end of life choice of MAID. The Episode 6 includes interviews with Compassion and Choices’
president Kim Callinan and others working on the MAID campaign nationwide.

Here’ the Compassion & Choices link to their article:
https://www.compassionandchoices.org/news/now-streaming-on-amazon-prime-take-me-out-feet-first-a-documentary-series-on-aid-in-dying

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