Rebecca VanWormer: “Join the Fight for Dignity”
December 7, 2016
by Rebecca VanWormer, East Millinocket, Maine I’m 43 years old and I’m dying of cancer. I accept it because there is no getting out of it. My goal is to live as long as I can…
Death with Dignity Movement Making Strides in 2016
November 8, 2016
Twenty-two years ago today, Oregon voters passed the nation’s first Death with Dignity law. This fact and the incredible strides we’ve made in the Death with Dignity movement since then, and this year in particular, may be lost amid the…
Hope, Fear, and End-of-Life Options in Maine
July 27, 2016
By Valerie Lovelace For the past several months I have been video-recording the testimony of folks in Maine who are facing terminal illness. Being entrusted with such intimate, personal stories is both an amazing and heart-breaking experience. Their courage and…
Talking About Death: Changing the Conversation in Maine
May 25, 2016
By Valerie Lovelace I work with It’s My Death and the Death with Dignity movement to reshape how we approach dying and end-of-life conversations. Many people across the country are making inroads into the difficulty of…
Weeks 18 & 19/2016 in the Death with Dignity Movement
May 16, 2016
Highlights from media coverage of Death with Dignity and related issues in the past week. Articles, essays, op-eds, editorials, and more.
State by State Progress: A March Report
March 17, 2016
The year of successes continues. California Last week an extraordinary legislative session concluded in California. The event launched a 91-day countdown to when the End of Life Option Act, a Death with Dignity law we helped craft and pass, goes…
Death with Dignity, Human Rights, and the Caucus
February 24, 2016
By Valerie Lovelace Val is the executive director of It’s My Death, our partner organization in Maine which teaches “others how to be with dying, how to speak and listen to one another, and how to…
Local Advocate Spotlight: Valerie Lovelace, Maine
February 3, 2016
Last year, Maine came closer than ever to having a Death with Dignity statute. The Maine House passed LD 1270, An Act Regarding Patient-directed Care at the End of Life, with a vote of 76 to…
On Human Rights and Dying
November 19, 2015
By Valerie Lovelace Our rights as human beings are defined solely by legislation. Precious few in number, these human rights have always been influenced by various special interest groups. When I asked a law professor friend what a human right…
Dying the Way I Want: Death with Dignity in Maine
August 14, 2015
By Valerie Lovelace Maine Should Have a Death with Dignity Law Maine’s legislature recently failed to pass LD 1270, An Act Regarding Patient-Directed Care at the End-of-Life. The bill would have allowed a qualifying, terminally ill adult to ask…