Death With Dignity Resources
Washington State Resources
A Place to Die – A Sacred Passing
A Place to Die is a program which has been created for increasing access to these options at no cost to the dying person. A Place to Die gives community members access to education, death doula care, and a physical place where any person can stay while exercising their end of life choice with medical aid in dying (MAID) or voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED).
ACLU of Washington, health care page
Here is a good resource for those concerned about health care choices in facilities where there are religious restrictions.
Alzheimer’s Association – Western & Central Washington State Chapter
Resources for individuals and families dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease
Disability Rights Washington
Advocacy for disabled individuals
Department of Health
Hospital Policies
Legal Voice
Checklist of legal resources for Washington seniors
LifeCenter Northwest
A non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives through organ and tissue donation. They serve Alaska, Montana, North Idaho and Washington.
People’s Memorial Association
A Washington State nonprofit that promotes consumer choice for end-of-life arrangements
Phyllis Shacter
Phyllis Shacter is a VSED advocate from Washington state.
Sound Generations
Sound Generations is a comprehensive non-profit organization that serves older adults and adults with disabilities in King County.
Speaking of Dying
Counseling and compassionate support for individuals and/or families dealing with end-of-life issues, grief & loss, life-limiting illness, transitions, etc.
Washington State Hospice & Palliative Care Organization
Resources for excellent hospice and palliative care in Washington
Psilocybin
Information and about our position.
National Resources
American Association of Suicidology – Statement that “Suicide” is not the same as “Physician Aid in Dying”
Compassion & Choices
Providing end-of-life resources for all Americans
Death with Dignity National Center
Provides a massive amount of resources about “death with dignity” laws for patients, families, activists and advocates, and health care professionals. The mission of this nonprofit organization is to promote those laws based on model legislation, the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.
Family Caregiver AllianceTheir mission is to improve the quality of life for caregivers and those they care for through information, services, and advocacy.
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
Providing information on hospice and palliative care throughout the country
Recommended Viewing
Best Practices for Conducting Washington Death With Dignity Act Psychological Evaluations
The updated Death with Dignity Act in WA state now allows a state-licensed psychiatrist, psychologist, independent clinical social worker, advanced social worker, mental health counselor, or psychiatric advanced registered nurse practitioner to conduct psychological evaluations for MAID patients. This 75 min workshop will introduce providers to some basic information about MAID and best practices for conducting an evaluation when required.
End of Life Washington
Volunteers and family members tell their stories of receiving support from End of Life Washington. (8 minutes)
Dying Wish
Documentary about hospice patient, Dr. Michael Miller, an eighty-year old, retired surgeon with end-stage cancer who chooses to stop eating and drinking in order not to prolong his dying process, to ease his suffering and to die with grace
How to Die in Oregon
Documentary that tells the stories of terminally ill Oregonians, their families, doctors, and friends as they decide whether and when to end their life under the state’s Death with Dignity Law
A Dance With Death: The Final Days of Kelly Johnson
Short documentary about musician and performer Kelly Johnson, who used medical aid in dying in California in 2018.
Recommended Reading
Choosing to Die: A Personal Story by Phyllis Shacter
Phyllis Shacter courageously shares the first personal story ever written about VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking). This memoir and guidebook follows the journey she took with her husband, Alan, once he decided to VSED so he didn’t have to live into the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Doctor, Please Help me Die by Tom Preston, MD
End of Life Washington’s Senior Volunteer Medical Director, retired cardiologist, and author, Tom Preston, MD, traces the history of patients seeking relief from suffering at the end of life.
Final Victory by Tom Preston, MD
In Final Victory, Dr. Preston shows how you can take charge of life’s end and set the stage for a peaceful, dignified death.
Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Katy Butler
In this visionary memoir, based on a groundbreaking New York Times Magazine story, award-winning journalist Katy Butler ponders her parents’ desires for “Good Deaths” and the forces within medicine that stood in the way.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Still Alice is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman’s sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer’s disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University.
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients’ anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them. And families go along with all of it.