A New York Times spotlight on Quiĕtus and the work behind the headlines

The New York Times profiled Quiĕtus, a New York City-based care coordination service built specifically around the state’s new Medical Aid in Dying Act, and one of its founders, Dr. Tara Shapiro. Quiĕtus launched the same day the law took effect on August 5, 2026, and offers terminally ill patients home visits, telehealth support, and help navigating every legal and medical requirement. 

The Times calls it a “one-stop shop,” and the piece traces the personal losses that led Shapiro to build it: a sister who died in childhood, a nephew who died young, and her mother-in-law, Janice, who used medical aid in dying to end her life in Vermont in 2023, one of the first states to extend that option to out-of-state residents.

“They played ‘My Way,’ by Frank Sinatra. Dr. Shapiro recalled mixing the powders in a cup with apple juice, bringing out some sherbet to dull the taste, and handing it to her mother-in-law, who gulped the lethal combination down. Then Janice Shapiro told the family that after she died somebody should take the sweatpants she was wearing, which were awfully comfortable. Within 20 minutes, she was dead.”

Dr. Shapiro is also a C&C Champion, lending her voice and clinical experience to our broader advocacy work. Her reflection in the Times piece captures something we hear constantly from clinicians doing this work: the tension between decades of training oriented around fighting death, and the reality that for some patients, comfort and autonomy at the end of life require a different kind of care.

This summer, Compassion & Choices awarded Quiĕtus a grant to build exactly the kind of infrastructure the Times is now reporting on. Support that helped Quiĕtus build the resources and processes it’s using with patients right now.

Aided by the support of this grant, Quiĕtus’s affiliated clinicians built two things patients needed before day one. The first was a complete clinical policy and procedure framework covering every stage of the medical-aid-in-dying process, from initial inquiry through bereavement follow-up. The second was a comprehensive suite of patient-facing educational materials explaining the New York Medical Aid in Dying Act in plain language, including eligibility criteria, the step-by-step process, what to expect on the day of death, and guidance for families.

That grant period has since concluded, but the relationship hasn’t: we’re continuing to look for ways to jointly support implementation efforts across the state as more clinicians and patients navigate this law for the first time.

The Times piece doesn’t shy away from the friction, either — New York’s law is among the strictest in the country, and Shapiro has had to turn away callers who don’t qualify.

That gap, between who wants this option and who can currently access it, is exactly the terrain your support helps us narrow, state by state, person by person.

Read the New York Time’s article here

Visit our New York state page for resources on medical aid in dying here