The end-of-life care movement shines at EndWell 2025

The current system of end-of-life care in the United States consistently fails the people in its charge. Death is marginalized or medicalized in ways that limit patient care, choice, and autonomy. But a movement is growing to reimagine how people in this country might face death and dying. 

This surge of interest and advocacy around end-of-life care was clear at EndWell 2025, where Compassion & Choices joined other leaders in the movement to improve end-of-life experiences. The annual conference brings together death workers, healthcare professionals, advocates, and innovators who are shaping the future of end-of-life care and has become a key gathering point for everyone working to transform how we approach death and dying in the United States and beyond. 

Compassion & Choices was at the forefront of these conversations on how to realize better care and choice for all people at the end of life. 

Building compassionate, inclusive end-of-life care

Joél Maldonado, a Compassion & Choices board member and funeral practitioner, addressed a crowd of death doulas, educators, palliative care professionals, healthcare leaders, and many others at the conference. The 2025 winner of a prize for making notable contributions to her field from Talk Death Daily, a nonprofit for death-conscious education, advocacy, and community, Joél drew cheers from the audience when she shared a childhood drawing of herself as “The Grave Woman” — a depiction of her dream, now realized, of curating deathcare spaces that are inclusive and compassionate. 

Joél’s story embodied the spirit of the end-of-life care options movement: many people committed to reimagining death care with dignity, justice, and openness at its center.

Real stories inspiring change

Attendees also gathered for a screening of Other Side, a documentary that Compassion & Choices helped create about medical aid in dying. The film explores the deeply personal stories of individuals and families navigating end-of-life decisions, offering an intimate look at what medical aid in dying means for those who choose it. The screening contributed to a day of honest, compassionate conversations about expanding choices at the end of life.

The conversations about facing illness, caregiving, dying, and grief that happened at EndWell don’t just represent a broader cultural shift happening nationwide. They also drive this change forward by normalizing patient-directed care and choice, which compels institutional change, and, in turn, enables policy wins. 

Just weeks after the conference, New York became the latest state to pass medical aid-in-dying legislation — a historic win for the end-of-life care movement. As medical aid in dying continues to move into mainstream healthcare conversations, gatherings like EndWell demonstrate how advocates, practitioners, and healthcare professionals are building connections across the country and world.

To find out how you can take action to improve end-of-life care options in your own state, click here.