The California End of Life Option Act went into effect on June 9, 2016. This compassionate option allows for an eligible terminally ill adult, with a prognosis of six months or less to live, to request and receive a prescription form their doctor that they can self-ingest to peacefully end their suffering.
An improvement bill, SB 380, took effect in 2022. The Department of Public Health’s annual data report showed there was a 47% increase in Californians who used the law in 2022, increasing access to the law exactly as intended.
We will continue to work on reauthorizing this law, removing the sunset provision, and reducing barriers to access while ensuring safeguards remain intact.
The CDSS issued a notice to adult and senior care facilities about the End of Life Option Act. Residents who qualify for medical aid in dying living in assisted facilities and other adult or senior care facilities are able to take their medication in their home and can’t be evicted for choosing this option.
We are thrilled to announce that today a Riverside Superior Court ruled that the new medical aid-in-dying law in California can continue to give terminally ill, mentally capable people with a prognosis of six months or less another end-of-life option. Compassion & Choices was the only advocacy group to weigh in on an effort to…
A California Superior Court today accepted a friend-of-the court brief filed by Compassion & Choices urging the court to reject a request for a preliminary injunction to stop implementation of the state’s new medical aid-in-dying law. The End of Life Option Act gives terminally ill adults the option to request a doctor’s prescription for medication…
Nancy Jacobsen of San Francisco, California, didn’t give much thought to her own mortality until she was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004. She recovered after surgery and radiation treatments, but the cancer returned 10 years later, shortly before she first heard of Compassion & Choices: “It was either online or because I picked up…
Medical aid in dying is now available to terminally ill adults in California, as the End of Life Option Act took effect June 9. Compassion & Choices led the strategic yearlong campaign to pass the law. And the organization initiated its California Access Campaign in January – even prior to the law’s effective date —…
Thanks to California’s End of Life Option Act law taking effect today, terminally ill adults in California with less than six months to live finally have the option to ask their doctor for prescription medication they can decide to take, so they can die peacefully in their sleep, if their suffering becomes unbearable. The process…
The California End of Life Option Act takes effect today, authorizing 12 percent of terminally ill adults nationwide to have the option to request medical aid in dying if their suffering becomes intolerable. The other states that previously authorized medical aid in dying – Oregon (1997), Washington (2008), Montana (2009) and Vermont (2013) – comprise…
The California End of Life Option Act takes effect June 9, authorizing 12 percent of terminally ill adults nationwide to have the option to request medical aid in dying if their suffering becomes intolerable. The other states that previously authorized medical aid in dying – Oregon (1997), Washington (2008), Montana (2009) and Vermont (2013) –…
(Los Angeles – May 23, 2016) Compassion & Choices today announced the promotion of Oregon state director Matt Whitaker as its new California state director. A board-certified music therapist with clinical experience in long-term acute care and geriatrics, Whitaker will lead the organization’s campaign to help Californians access the state’s new medical aid-in-dying law that…
(Los Angeles, Calif. – May 19, 2016) Compassion & Choices praised a study released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research on implementation guidance on California’s End of Life Option Act that takes effect on June 9. The study, “Implementing Aid in Dying in California: Experiences from Other States Indicates the Need for…
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