Advocates from Compassion & Choices and their allies voiced their outrage following the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government’s (FSGG) inclusion of language that would repeal Death with Dignity in Washington, DC and prevent the DC Council from adopting any such laws in the future.
The House Appropriations Committee’s Republican Majority released its FY26 FSGG appropriations text and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on FSGG voted the bill out of the subcommittee on Monday, 9-6.
The language repeals the Washington, DC Death With Dignity Act, which went into effect on June 6, 2017, authorizing the compassionate option of medical aid in dying for terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to get a prescription they can take to end their life peacefully. In the more than eight years that this law has been in effect, there have been zero complaints of misuse or abuse.
“The Subcommittee may have authority over DC spending, but this is an intrusive and overreaching policy rider,” said Kevin Díaz, President & CEO of Compassion & Choices. “Compassion & Choices will work tirelessly with our allies to remove this language.”
“As a resident of the District of Columbia, I feel so fortunate because D.C. allows medical aid in dying,” said Diane Rehm, former American public radio talk show host of The Diane Rehm Show, whose husband John Rehm died in 2014 after he stopped eating and drinking to end his suffering from Parkinson’s disease. “Please don’t take away that option for residents who may need it.”
Ms. Rehm continued, “I have seen firsthand what can happen when medical aid in dying is not an option. At the end of his life, my husband suffered needlessly and begged to die.”
“This attempted repeal is simply members of the committee, who are not themselves residents of the District of Columbia, imposing their own policy preferences and points of view onto the residents of Washington, DC, overriding the will of their duly elected officials,” said Irene Jackson-Brown, a Compassion & Choices board member, third-generation Washingtonian, PhD, Certified Senior Advisor, Care Manager Certified, and Certified Dementia Practitioner. “As a longtime resident of Washington, DC, I have seen what life was like before medical aid in dying was an option for those who desired to exercise the option. Residents of the District must continue to have their own agency around end-of-life care, respecting the right to patient-directed care.”
“My wife died peacefully in my arms, immersed in our deep love. It was a beautiful moment. I want everyone who is terminally ill to have the option, should they choose, to take medications in their final days,” added Stella Dawson, whose wife, Mary Klein, became the first known person to use medical aid in dying in the District. “A quiet death is an act of compassion and caring. It was a legacy Mary fought relentlessly throughout her illness to achieve. I will fight equally hard for others to have that same option of death with dignity.”
Compassion & Choices
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