Be an Advocate for Peaceful Death

In the decades since my mom died in 2000, I have worked in hospice. I worked as a chaplain at a cancer center. I counseled families through grief and loss. Again and again, I sat with people who were facing the end of their lives, listening as they tried to make sense of what lay ahead. Through all of those years, one truth has stayed with me: Dying is not what people fear most. What they fear is prolonged suffering, the loss of control, and becoming trapped in a body that no longer allows them to live the life they loved.

For people facing terminal illness, medical aid in dying (MAID) offers something profoundly important: the knowledge that if their suffering becomes too great, they have an option. People feel comforted just knowing it exists. That knowledge alone can change everything.

It shifts the conversation. It allows patients to speak openly with their loved ones and caregivers about their fears and wishes. It restores a sense of control in a moment when so much else feels uncertain.

Over the years, I have shared information about Colorado’s Death with Dignity with countless patients and families. Sometimes people want to learn more about the process. Sometimes they decide it is not right for them.

Both responses are valid. What matters most is that people are able to make informed choices about their own lives and how they die.

So many people don’t even know the option exists. Others feel hesitant to ask about it. Some encounter doctors who are unsure how to discuss it or who are unfamiliar with the process.

Passing a law is only the beginning. Ensuring that people understand their rights, and can access accurate information when they need it, is the work that follows. For the last ten years, advocates and clinicians in our state have worked tirelessly to ensure this law is followed exactly as intended. Together, we have educated communities about end-of-life options and supported dying patients who choose to pursue a dignified death.

And yet today, opponents are trying to dismantle this carefully crafted law through lawsuits, misinformation, and fear. They are attempting to take away an option that terminally ill patients deserve to be able to rely on in their most difficult moments.

And I am left asking why?

For those of us who have witnessed the suffering that can occur when people feel trapped without options, the answer matters deeply.

The ability to discuss and access medical aid in dying has brought peace of mind and relief to countless patients and families over the years. It has allowed people facing terminal illness to approach the end of their lives with dignity, honesty, and support from those they love. To approach it without fear of too much suffering or too much pain.

Protecting this law matters. It matters for patients, for families and for all of us because someday every one of us will face end of life.

The freedom to die with dignity on our own terms is being challenged. This moment is about drawing a line in the sand and saying that unnecessary suffering should never be the only path forward.

I write about this as someone who has seen firsthand what a good death looks like. The ability for terminally ill people to access MAID did not happen by accident. This law exists because people cared enough to fight for it. To advocate, educate and campaign to get a law passed.

Today, that hard-won right is under threat. And we must do everything we can to preserve this critical healthcare option.

If you believe that people facing the end of life deserve dignity, autonomy, and peace, please support it. Ask questions about it. Talk about it. Learn about the way it works. Shed the fear and shame around it and keep it

alive. It will be a sad, sad day if it is overturned after the next elections.

You can learn more about it by visiting www.compassionandchoices.org