This month, we’re thinking about the Mutchler family in Montana. Many longtime Compassion & Choices supporters may be familiar with their story. Bob Baxter was the lead plaintiff in the case Baxter v Montana brought by Compassion & Choices that facilitated medical aid in dying as an end-of-life option in the state. He did not live to see the decision won, but his grandson, TJ Mutchler, utilized medical aid-in-dying in 2016 after an agonizing experience with pancreatic cancer at the age of 36. 

Leslie Mutchler, TJ’s mother, said this of her experience with her son:

The day after TJ died, I was notified that a state lawmaker had once again introduced a bill that would make physicians who prescribe aid-in-dying liable to be charged with homicide. What should have been a moment to grieve and take care of myself was brutally interrupted by the callous, unrelenting effort of some to end this compassionate option for Montanans. That same week, as I mourned the loss of my son, I testified to leave the court decision intact.

This was in 2016. Montanans like Leslie have seen lawmakers introduce bills to criminalize doctors nearly every year in the intervening decade. Leslie is an elder of our movement. Her hard-won experience fighting for the right to choice at the end of life shows all of us in the Compassion & Choices community how to move forward as we face onslaught of potential losses in Montana and Washington, D.C., where Congress annually seeks to overturn it.

The legislative efforts in Montana are not the first time medical aid-in-dying advocates have stared down defeat and kept going. In Maryland, ten years of advocacy is culminating in a legislative session this year poised for success. Advocates like Diane Krause and Rev. Alexa Fraiser have lobbied lawmakers, testified at hearings and put themselves in the public eye over and over again to realize change in their state.

Many terminally ill people who dedicate their final years, months and weeks to medical aid-in-dying advocacy have not gotten to see it come to fruition — like our plaintiff Bob Baxter. But consider this thought from our friend and advocate Danna Nelson, who died in 2022: “I’m not prioritizing it in my own life; I’m prioritizing making it legal for the future of terminally ill people.”

For Bob, that person ended up being his own grandson. For Danna, it may be people she never met, who learned about her story from her candid video and writing on behalf of the Compassion & Choices legislative campaign in Minnesota. We have much to learn from our advocates, past, present and future. Together, we can win. 

In solidarity,

The Compassion & Choices team

Donor and Supporter Privacy Policy — Contact
Texting Privacy Policy
Media Contacts
It's Not Assisted Suicide