Popular Media Hits

Our message is reaching millions! End-of-life choice is entering the mainstream conversation through strategic media engagement and powerful storytelling.

Our press hits have included major television, print and digital media coverage. In The New York Times, coverage of the Medical Aid in Dying Act passing the state legislature featured an article that acknowledged Compassion & Choices’ work toward victory with our photo front and center: New York Moves to Allow Terminally Ill People to Die on Their Own Terms. 

Our lawsuits have attracted considerable public interest as we fight to maintain the right to end-of-life patient autonomy. In Colorado, 9News in Denver featured plaintiff/Champion Jeff McComas and the Compassion & Choices lawsuit challenging Colorado’s residency requirement for medical aid in dying: Minnesota man with terminal cancer sues Colorado over aid-in-dying residency rule.

Sometimes those who disagreed with us published a piece that we had to respond to. In The Wall Street Journal, a letter to the editor challenged the opinion piece, Why Should Hospice Be the Sick’s Sole Option?

In May, The Washington Post broke the story of our lawsuit taking on the pregnancy exclusion in advance directives in Kansas in the case of Vernon v. Kobach: Women sue Kansas over law that disregards end-of-life wishes during pregnancy.

And when The Washington Post quoted Compassion & Choices about the story of Adriana Smith in Georgia, Brain-dead pregnant woman’s case spurs questions about medical consent, the case for end-of-life options reached members of the public who might otherwise have been unfamiliar with the issue.

People magazine also published a story about plaintiff Jeff McComas and the McComas v. Polis Colorado residency lawsuit, including quotes from fellow plaintiffs Dr. Barbara Morris and Dr. Jennifer Harbert: Terminally Ill Man Fights for Right to Medical Aid in Dying, Seeks Control Over His Final Days: ‘Prefer to Die Painlessly’.

Compassion & Choices was also showcased in the world of podcasts when host John Murphy interviewed death doula Deltra James and Compassion & Choices Senior Campaign Director Tim Appleton for a conversation about end-of-life care planning.