Week 29/2015 in the Death with Dignity Movement

In the week from July 13 to July 19, 2015, legislatures went into summer recesses and the Death with Dignity movement entered a “slow news day” period.

California: “After a Blow in California, Death with Dignity Isn’t Dead,” The Humanist, 7/13/2015
District of Columbia: D.C. Councilmembers Yvette Alexander and Mary Cheh recently introduced the Health Care Decisions Act of 2015 to give patients nearing the end of life the option to have their medical providers issue a Medical Order for Scope of Treatment (MOST, called a MOLST or POLST elsewhere). “How Washington D.C. Can Improve Care for Patients at the End of Life,” Huffington Post, 7/16/2015
Maine: “Guns win, death with dignity loses,” CentralMaine.com, 7/16/2015
Tennessee: “Dying, naturally, is our right,” Tennesseean, 7/14/2015
“[T]he death-with-dignity movement is not solely a matter of individual rights. It also challenges the state’s views of its responsibility for its citizens and the doctor’s self-perception as healer. The state is, however, slowly giving its citizens the power to decide for themselves whether they want to die with dignity.” “Dying with Dignity: State v. Patient,” Aspen Times, 7/13/2015