The movement for end-of-life care options closed out 2025 with a big victory: On December 30, a federal judge in Delaware denied an attempt to block the state’s medical aid-in-dying law from being enacted on January 1, 2026.
If opponents’ efforts had been successful, it could have served as a blueprint for other states where bills related to medical aid in dying have recently passed, such as New York and Illinois.
Relief was palpable for Delaware residents like Susan Boyce, who is living with a rare, incurable, and irreversible genetic form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
“With the loving support of my husband and amazing children, I live each day to the fullest doing what I can to stay healthy and active,” Susan said. “We all know that those with my disease face a terrible decline, with some people lingering breathless for months before dying. I think this prospect would worry most people. This law has given me peace of mind and freedom to fully live my life without fear of death and the dying process.”
Susan with her husband, Kevin Stone
This victory in the final days of 2025 gives us a glimpse into what’s to come in 2026: exciting opportunities to advance end-of-life care while fending off emerging threats to our movement.
Passing medical aid-in-dying legislation is a major milestone — but it’s never the finish line. Our work extends far beyond a single policy win and continues long after a bill is signed into law. In states like Illinois and Delaware, where new medical aid-in-dying laws have passed, our staff and volunteers remain on the ground full-time, ensuring residents understand their rights, how these laws fit into broader end-of-life planning, and how to navigate access in practice.
In New York, where Governor Kathy Hochul is expected to sign the state’s Medical Aid in Dying Act into law in the coming weeks, we are already hard at work so that qualifying New Yorkers understand the process and have access to supportive healthcare systems.
New York resident Dr. Jeremy Boal recently shared his gratitude for the soon-to-be-signed legislation on Spectrum News NY1.
“I am enjoying life immensely,” Dr. Boal said. “I feel blessed for every day that I get. I may reach a point where…I decide it’s [medical aid in dying] the right thing for me….The important point is knowing it’s available, should I need it, is providing me tremendous comfort in the present moment.
“It’s not just about the very end, it’s about being able to live with my illness rather than fear what might happen.”
The lawsuit that was dismissed in Delaware on December 30 was the third lawsuit of this kind filed since 2023. The coalition filing the lawsuit has challenged access to medical aid in dying in California, Colorado, and, most recently, Delaware. Thankfully, access to medical aid in dying in those states has not been affected by these attacks.
Vickie George, Delaware resident and Compassion Legal client
However, it is now clear that these lawsuits are a coordinated, national attack on medical aid in dying, and other recent developments demonstrate that this will be a long fight.
In 2025, we founded Compassion Legal – The End-of-Life Justice Center, the nation’s first nonprofit law firm solely dedicated to advancing patient rights at life’s end. In 2026, we’ll continue fighting for your right to receive the end-of-life care you ask for. In the months ahead, we expect rulings in cases including our challenges to pregnancy exclusion laws and attempts to invalidate existing aid-in-dying laws.
In 2026, we hope to pass the first-ever medical aid-in-dying bill in a Southern state, as we continue to gain ground in Virginia. We’re also launching a new effort in Florida and making progress in Maryland and Massachusetts while we continue our work in all 50 states, with eight states anticipated to introduce medical aid-in-dying legislation this session.
Our advocacy work is not limited to state legislatures. Compassion & Choices works in the halls of Congress and federal agencies, calling on policymakers to improve end-of-life care through legislation and regulation that allows people to be the primary decision-makers in their care.
In 2025, we advocated for continued telehealth access for controlled prescriptions for people at the end of life. Now the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have issued a fourth temporary extension of pandemic-era telemedicine flexibilities, allowing clinicians to prescribe controlled medications via telehealth without requiring an initial in-person visit, effective through December 31, 2026.
We’ll continue to push for keeping telehealth access available beyond 2026.
This year, we’re also focusing our federal efforts on addressing the harmful effects of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (H.R. 1) on end-of-life care and advocating to amend a ban on using federal insurance like Medicare to help terminally ill people in authorized states pay for medical aid in dying.
Our community engagement work continues to progress in 2026, strengthening end-of-life care from the ground up through workshops, presentations, culturally competent materials, and more.
In 2025, we expanded our reach and impact through partnerships with other organizations, including collaborating on the development of an accredited advance planning course to help healthcare professionals have meaningful conversations with their patients about their care wishes.
2026 will see more of this important work: Compassion & Choices and The National End-of-Life Doula Alliance will release a new medical aid-in-dying course for doulas, and our ongoing partnership with the American Society on Aging will feature three webinars for their members around end-of-life issues, presentations at the ASA annual conference, and an on-demand course. Meanwhile, we’ll debut new tools for empowering you at every stage of end-of-life care planning.
The hard-won progress of 2025 propels us into the new year with the wind at our backs, but it has also provoked renewed attacks on end-of-life autonomy. We move forward powered by the people at the heart of this movement — people like Susan and Dr. Boal, whose stories remind us why this work matters so deeply.
Every victory brings new responsibility: to protect hard-won laws, to ensure access is real and equitable, and to continue improving end-of-life care and decision-making in all its forms. Our work doesn’t stop at implementation — it requires sustained effort to educate, support, and advocate so that people and families can navigate the end of life with clarity, compassion, dignity, and choice. With your continued engagement and support, we are turning momentum into lasting change, strengthening end-of-life care nationwide and ensuring everyone has the freedom to live fully, right to the very end.
Mail contributions directly to:
Compassion & Choices Gift Processing Center
PO Box 485
Etna, NH 03750
Compassion & Choices is a 501 C3 organization. Federal tax number: 84-1328829
