A note from the CEO: A new short film from Compassion & Choices asks, “Who decides how you will die?”

By Kevin Díaz, President & CEO

In 2013, one year before I started working at Compassion & Choices, Barbara Mancini made headlines. 

Barbara, a Pennsylvania nurse, was caring for her 93-year-old father while he was on hospice. When he asked for his legally prescribed morphine, she handed the bottle to him as usual. Instead of taking his regular dose, however, he downed the entire bottle and lost consciousness. 

EMTs then transported him to the hospital, and personnel there revived him, despite his signed do-not-resuscitate order. He died four days later. 

The State of Pennsylvania subsequently charged Barbara with assisted suicide, launching a yearlong legal battle that upended her life. 

Barbara’s story comes to the big screen

In Right to Die, a new short documentary film produced by Compassion & Choices and directed by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Wren Rene, Barbara tells her story — not only of her father’s death, but how, nine years later, she faced another uphill battle when her mother was dying. 

While the circumstances of Barbara’s case are extraordinary, the questions it raises are deeply familiar to many Americans: Why do so many people die in pain, surrounded by machines, instead of loved ones? And why are patients’ wishes so often overshadowed at the end of life?

The film is already resonating with audiences as an official selection for both the DC Independent Film Festival and the Oxford Film Festival. 

Discover the rest of the story 

I was honored to participate in this documentary, especially because while a lot has changed in the end-of-life care movement since Barbara’s prosecution, her experience speaks to the ongoing battles we’re fighting to hold the health care system accountable to patients and their loved ones. 

As I state in the film, the system has been set up to provide more care and extend life at all costs. The disconnect comes when that is not what people want. We need attorneys and advocates who emphasize the harm that is being committed on people when their wishes at the end of life aren’t respected, so that no one has to face what Barbara and her parents endured.

Right now, thanks to your support, Compassion Legal is doing just that. 

Sign up now to watch the full film and learn more about the movement for end-of-life rights.

When you sign up, you get a link and password to watch the full 16-minute documentary for free alongside end-of-life care resources and the latest news from the movement.