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.
Compassion & Choices Action Network is proud to share that, due to our advocacy and the leadership of Senator Catherine Blakespear and other legislative champions, SB 403, the bill to make the End of Life Option Act permanent, has been signed into law on October 3, 2025, by Governor Gavin Newsom. We are so pleased that in times of great uncertainty, we have worked alongside champions and partners to ensure that everyone in the Golden State will continue to have access to the End of Life Option Act in perpetuity.
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.
Medical aid in dying is for people who are already dying. It is a lawful medical option for qualified adults with a terminal illness, a prognosis of six months or less to live, who can make their own healthcare decisions and have the ability to take the medication themselves.
Medical aid in dying is not suicide or euthanasia. Compassion & Choices supports people seeking information about lawful end-of-life care options in the United States. We do not provide instructions or guidance for ending your life outside supportive medical care.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, in crisis, or thinking about suicide, help is available right now. You are not alone, and your pain deserves care. Call 988, text 988, or chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at https://988lifeline.org/chat/
Informe Anual Muestra Incremento en Médicos que Recetan Prescripciones Indicando Mejoras en Capacitación y Alcance (Sacramento, California — 11 de julio del 2022) Más de 700 californianos con enfermedades terminales utilizaron en el 2021, el End of Life Option Act o Ley de Opción de Fin de Vida, para morir pacíficamente, según un informe publicado recientemete por el…
Annual Report shows increase in Prescribing Physicians, Marking Improved Education and Outreach More than 700 terminally ill Californians used the End of Life Option Act to die peacefully in 2021, according to a newly released report by the California Department of Public Health. This law allows terminally ill, mentally capable adults the option to request a medication they…
Advierten que Cientos de Californianos con Enfermedades Terminales Pueden Sufrir Innecesariamente Si la Corte Anula la Ley Un hombre con una enfermedad terminal, dos médicos y Compassion & Choices Action Network, el grupo de defensa que patrocinó la ley de ayuda médica para morir de California que fue recientemente modificada, presentaron el miércoles una moción para…
Compassion & Choices lanzó hoy videos bilingües con el actor mexicano Mauricio Ochmann y la activista de derechos civiles Dolores Huerta instando a los latinos en California a unirse para defender la ley recién suspendida, End of Life Option Act o Ley de Opción de Fin de Vida por la cual lucharon tanto. Hace 10 días, el 24…
Warns Hundreds of Terminally Ill Californians May Suffer Needlessly if Court Voids Law A terminally ill man, two physicians, and the advocacy group that sponsored California’s recently amended medical aid-in-dying law, Compassion & Choices Action Network, Wednesday, filed a motion to intervene and oppose a federal lawsuit seeking to invalidate the law. The intervenors are represented…
This opinion was published in the Los Angeles Times en Español on Tuesday, May 17, 2022: “..El apoyo de Dolores Huerta fue fundamental para que se aprobara el End of Life Option Act de California en el 2015, y el Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act en el estado de Nuevo México. Estas leyes…
(Sacramento, CA – 22 de noviembre del 2021) Compassion & Choices presentó hoy un escrito de amicus ante un tribunal federal, en apoyo de una demanda para proteger los derechos de libertad de expresión de la Primera Enmienda, de las doulas (o) para la muerte en California. Las doulas para la muerte (también conocidas como…
(Sacramento) Compassion & Choices filed an amicus brief in federal court late Friday in support of a lawsuit to protect the First Amendment free speech rights of death doulas in California. Death doulas (aka “end-of-life doulas”) provide important information to dying individuals and their loved ones and ensure dying individuals receive patient-directed care at the…
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