Actor Urges Latinos to Engage in Critical End-of-life Care Conversations During Ongoing Pandemic

(Hollywood, CA) A leading end-of-life care advocacy group, Compassion & Choices, today congratulated one of its most prominent spokespeople, Hollywood actor Mauricio Ochmann, for his new film, ¿Y Cómo Es Él? (How Is He?), a comedy about a man whose wife has an affair with a taxi driver. The movie, which debuts today in more than 350 U.S. theaters in Spanish with English subtitles, marks Mauricio’s return to the big screen after two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Mauricio Ochmann’s powerful voice has helped pass compassionate laws for Latinos suffering at the end of life,” said Compassion & Choices President and Chief Executive Officer Kim Callinan. “And during the pandemic, at a time when we saw first hand how fragile our lives are, Mauricio used his powerful voice to raise awareness among Latinos about the importance of end-of-life conversations.

In 2014, Mauricio Ochmann became the  first Hollywood celebrity to advocate for passing medical aid-in-dying laws that allow mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to have the option to get prescription medication they can decide to take to peacefully end unbearable suffering. His vocal advocacy helped Compassion & Choices Action Network’s successful grassroots campaign to pass California’s End of Life Option Act in 2015. Today, nine other states and Washington, D.C. now also allow medical aid in dying.

“This pandemic makes it urgent for us to discuss with our loved ones what we want in case we get a deadly case of coronavirus or another life-shortening disease like cancer or dementia,” Mauricio wrote in an editorial published by Los Angeles Times en Español in April 2020  “Do we want life-sustaining measures, depending upon our condition? Who will speak for us in case we are unable to speak for ourselves? If more of us take charge of our last care wishes, we will not leave these  heart-wrenching life- and death-decisions in the hands of our family and doctors, who may not know what we want.”

Mauricio is a member of Compassion & Choices’ Latino Leadership Council, a group of leaders from across the country who help guide outreach to engage Hispanics and Latinos in the United States, including its Islands and territories. The Council is an extension of Compassion & Choices’ successful outreach to underserved communities that was key to winning campaigns to pass laws in California, New York, New Mexico and other states that allow terminally ill adults the option of medical aid in dying to peacefully end unbearable suffering.

¿Y Cómo Es Él? is directed by Ariel Winogrand, and produced by Hollywood Icon Eugenio Derbez and Ben Odell, and based on the film, Driving with My Wife’s Lover, written by Kim Tae-Sik & Kim Jun-Han. It also stars Mexican actors Omar Chaparro, Consuelo Duval, Zuria Vega, Mauricio Barrientos and Miguel Rodarte.

For nearly eight years, Mauricio has advocated for the full range of options at the end of life.

“I’ve told my family, the people I love and the people that love me, my friends, everybody, that in my death if I get … a terminal disease or something and I’m having a terrible time … I want out,” Ochmann says in the English language version of the video. “It’s my decision. I don’t want to suffer.”

In 2018, Mauricio joined civil rights activist Dolores Huerta in the fight to reinstate the End of Life Option Act, when a California judge issued a judgment temporarily suspending the compassionate law. He also visited a terminally ill Californian who wanted the option to die peacefully. He has written numerous editorials and recorded a series of Public Service Announcements  to help raise awareness about options at the end of life.

Compassion & Choices’ offers an End of Life Decision Guide Toolkit, available in both English and Spanish to help individuals express their end-of-life care wishes to their family, friends, and healthcare providers.

Success is nothing new for Mauricio. In 2018, Mauricio broke records with the release of Ya Veremos (We’ll See, a film about a child dealing with the separation of his parents when he is told he is going blind. The film had the second-biggest opening weekend ever for a Mexican film in its home market. In 2017, the film Hazlo Como Hombre (Do It Like  Man) became the highest-grossing Mexican movie at the local box office. Mauricio previously starred in Ybarra’s 2015 Mexican box office hit A La Mala (In a Bad Way) and previously Message in a Bottle with Kevin Costner.

“Mauricio’s compassion for Latinos  always keeps him grounded,” said María Otero, Latino Engagement Director at Compassion & Choices. “Mauricio always makes time to engage Latinos in conversations that will help empower them to plan and prepare for the end of their lives.”

ABOUT COMPASSION & CHOICES:

Compassion & Choices is the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization working to expand and improve healthcare for the end of life, with 450,000 supporters nationwide. More information is available at: www.compassionandchoices.org

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