Compassion & Choices

I am a long-time, enthusiastic donor to this organization. They have helped many of my friend's families navigate extraordinarily difficult circumstances. I share the resources they provide to my family and neighbors; They are informative and up-to-date.
I highly recommend them.

This is a fantastic organization. It is transforming end-of-life care in our country and providing peace of mind for folks dealing with some of the most challenging issues in their lives. They accomplish their goals through smart leadership, great staff and motivated supporters. I can't recommend their resources or services highly enough.

Compassion & Choices is a powerhouse in the end-of-life movement, having co-written and passed the very first medical aid in dying law in the country in Oregon. In recent years, they have also passed SIX more laws bringing the total number of states where aid in dying is legal to eleven. And in just the past two years, the nonprofit has launched innovative lawsuits removing the residency requirements for these laws in two states, meaning at this point, there are two states in the country (OR, VT) where anyone in the US who is eligible for aid-in-dying may access this peaceful option by traveling to those states (and no longer has to live there for six months, etc to get residency status).

In addition to this ground-breaking progress, C&C created the only online, interactive advance medical directive specifically for dementia. They are dedicated to incorporating that addendum into hospital intake procedures and establishing a legal precedent requiring healthcare facilities to honor such directives.

The staff at C&C are dedicated, innovative and tireless. I am grateful we have such a strong organization dedicated to reducing suffering at the end of life!

They are a wonderful organization to partner with. They have clear goals and great follow up. Keep doing the hard work - keep up the great job.

My husband, who, sadly, died a year ago, and I have been supporters of Compassion and Choices since its inception. It fills a deep human need informatively and responsibly, not only educating people about end-of-life challenges and choices but also sharing the firsthand stories that make us feel less alone as we face some of the hardest moments and decisions of our lives. We should live active, giving lives, and then, when we have run out of quality of life, be able to leave with dignity and without fear and suffering. Compassion and Choices does everything it can to help make this possible. A worthy cause and organization, indeed.

I always thought I would be a good advocate for my loved one who was dying, that I knew what I needed to know, and when the time came, that wasn't the case. Take advantage of what Compassion & Choices has to teach you. Become and advocate for change. Make end-of-life a better experience for those whom you love, and one day, for you too.

I had always been a believer in Compassion and Choices but never attended a meeting until about 1 year ago. This was at the Cocoa Beach public library and the parking lot was full! I arrived late and I had to stand. The speaker had already started to talk about the process he and his wife went through from the very beginning until her death in bed after consuming "the pills"... and surrounded by her husband and friends.

You could sense the increasing tension in the audience and, I assume, a tearing in one's eyes like my own. The final questions and answers between audience and husband were geared towards further clarifications about the decision process between husband and wife and the method to achieve same. All the resultant discussion was highly respectful and sincere.

This experience only increased my motivation to not only clarify my wishes with my spouse but to similarly discuss this with friends and people generally. Subsequently, I have now established a rather small, ongoing monthly donation to Compassion and Choices.

My good friend Ron Silverio was on board with Compassion and Choices as soon as his diagnosis of prostate cancer was made. Knowing that he had access to an easier, less traumatic and painful death would have eliminated much of his anxiety about his uncertain future. He had considered going to Switzerland initially, but was encouraged after attending a seminar in Kennett Square sponsored by Compassion and Choices. Ron spread the word as long as he was able, and now his wife is active in the cause in Delaware in his memory.

Compassion and Choices has been at the forefront of helping to pass laws that make it possible for people to make end of life decisions when they are faced with a terminal illness. Compassion and Choices was extremely helpful in New Mexico where the last legislature passed the Elizabeth Whitfield end of life option, which allows people who are faced with a terminal illness to choose how and when to end their lives. Compassion and Choices is non profit with a wonderful mission to help people at a terrible time in their lives. I donate monthly because I believe in what they do for people at the worst stage of their life.

My husband of 59 years and 10 months, has been enduring a variety of illnesses since 2001. He’s a retired pro football player / 11 years with the Raiders. Suffered a 14 hour coma in one game, and 2 weeks later, a total broken jaw that was wired together while played 4 more games. Diagnosed with CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) in UCLA NFL Brain Trial Study in 2012. Now has severe COPD and on O2 life support. He’s bedridden and has no short/ long term memory. Thus, I’ve chosen to embrace Compassion & Choices as his choice to ease into the Afterlife with dignity, peace and comfort. He has a terrific male, full-time caregiver of 5 years. I followed your wonderful Guide’s instructions, made a folio for each of us + copies for our 2 sons.
His physician signs the papers tomorrow. I feel reassured now about our choices, thanks so much to you. Couldn’t have done it without Compassion & Choices!
Sending you all our Blessings, Sharon

Compassion and Choices is offering people the opportunity to leave this world with dignity and without the pain and suffering that sometimes goes with the passing. The work they are accomplishing throughout the country is imperative so that people may die with dignity. The educational tools they offer are priceless and help people navigate the (sometimes uncomfortable) inevitability of death. Dying should be on OUR terms - not left in the hands of the state or federal government. Compassion and Choices lobbies for all of us in their fight for death with dignity.

As humans continue to live longer and encounter more morbidity, many are seeking alternatives to continuing to endure physically and mentally painful lives. This organization has become a central hub for discussion of such alternatives and to representing its membership before various state and federal government entities, thereby increasing awareness among many of our elected representatives.

Compassion & Choices is such a great advocate for those of us that want a choice when the time comes for how we leave this life.

This is a fabulous non-profit doing very important advocacy and educational work.
They keep supporters up to date on all their work with timely and informative emails, webinars and newsletters.
We love this organization and are happy to support it

Compassion & Choices is not only a helpful non-profit, but an important one. Although it provides information on end-of-life options to individuals, its bigger job is pushing for legislation to allow personal choice, control, and death with dignity. This huge task starts with education on an inevitable life-phase, and lifting the taboo that hovers over the subject of our own ends. An Advance Directive, made early, relieves family members from the agonizing burden of making decisions. C&C is working to increase end-of-life options in all states

Compassion & Choices is a wonderful organization that my parents introduced me to many, many years ago. In turn, my children have grown up knowing about it as well. This isn't about just ending life; it is about preparing to get the ending you want and deserve. It is about being prepared, and C&C gives us the health directives and all the information we need to make the best-informed decisions.

Our family has watched Compassion&Choices grow and discover new ways to help all kinds of people and difficult situations. Also, C and C makes it easy to see how donations are used. They use money wisely

Our family has always supported C&C because they are helpful to such a wide variety of problems regarding approaching death. All generations in our family are involved.

Terrific organization that lives up to its name literally -- a nonprofit that is filled with compassion and dedicated to giving us all important choices at a difficult time in our lives.

Compassion and Choices has brought education and advocacy to my area, leading to more open conversations for lots of people. The talks they sponsor are really well done! I like that the focus is on end of life planning and choices - not just the Medical Aid in Dying issue.

One of the few items that will happen to all people walking this earth, is that their time, like mine, will come to an end. Compassion and Choices understands that this time is exceptionally precious and affording people the right to determine how they want to manage this period in their life, is critical. We celebrate freedom, liberty and independence in the U.S.; affording every U.S. citizen the freedom, liberty and independence to make the final decision in their lives, is critical. C&C works tirelessly every day to make sure that every person in the U.S. will have the freedom to make this decision on their own terms. Their work is not only selfless, but most honorable.

Extremely well-run non-profit.
Leadership is intelligent, articulate and devoted to the cause.

I have worked with and supported Compassion & Choices for 20 years. Their mission is absolutely essential to creating and maintaining a world in which we all can make informed, humane healthcare choices. And everyone I know personally at C&C is a fine exemplar of that mission. The call for merciful end-of-life care is vital. And Compassion & Choices answers it,

Twenty three years ago, I first became aware of the possibility of Medical Aid in Dying, and
have watched its gradual evolution and acceptance ever since, until today so many people
look to Hospices as a sensible way to ease one's way out of this world, when one's time comes.
It is in these more recent years, that Compassion and Choices has taken Front and Foremost
in its Leadership in this effort, with offices on both Coasts, Portland, OR, and Washington, DC,
working strongly with different State Legislatures towards legalization of their efforts.

I didn’t want to discuss the subject of dying - mine or my beloved brother and sister-in-law. But they invited me to hear a presentation by Compassion & Choices. After hearing about their mission and engaging in the conversation with my brother and his wife I realized it all made sense. This subject is of primary important to everyone. Discovering what limits current laws place on our choices was shocking; learning that with my help laws can be changed to enable me and my loved ones to die with serenity and dignity, reassured that our wishes will be respected by our care givers was very comforting.

Compassion and Choices is important because it promotes giving an individual in hospice an opportunity to choose to end the suffering at the inevitable final time of life. I heard a number of supporters speak at a legislative hearing; they were so respectful of everyone's views and truthful about their motivation for helping to craft Medical Aid and Dying bills.

Each person should have the option of making end of life choices. C & C is working to make this option come true in all 50 States.

As my father nears the end of the road, it is comforting to know that C&C is there to advocate for his dignity and choice. I am proud to make this contribution.

I’ve been involved with Compassion & Choices as a donor & volunteer for many years and have seen the positive results of their work first-hand.

C&C is an extremely well-run organization with a long track record of driving real systemic change and positively impacting the lives of countless families.

I highly recommend that anyone with interest in end-of-life care check out their website and social media, sign up for their newsletters, or attend an event. In addition to donating, there are many ways to get involved and learn more about this important work!
https://compassionandchoices.org/

My adult life's work has been as a hands on philanthropist. I have been involved with Compassion & Choices since its inception and have found it to be one of the most effective, dedicated organizations I have had the privilege of supporting. They have spread the movement for compassionate choices at life's end in remarkable ways throughout the nation and beyond via both legal and educational means as well as providing direct services to individuals and families in dire need of their services.. Of the literally hundreds of 501c3s I have supported in my 82 years, there is not one I feel more deserving of being called a GreatNonProfit than Compassion & Choices.

While living in Washington DC more than 20 years ago I received a call from my dad, who lived in Oregon with my mother. He normally never called, leaving the long-distance chats to my mother, so I knew something was very wrong. Tersely he told me my mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She wasn't ready to talk to me at that moment but she would call me soon. A couple of days later she called. We talked and she told me she was going to fight it all the way, that she was willing to be a guinea pig for research and that she was feeling strong. She then ended the call with words I have never forgotten. She said, "I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of the process of dying."

Four years later she had fought the good fight, had been a guinea pig for research, had done experimental treatments at both NIH and Cleveland Clinic, and nothing had changed the outcome. She was dying. She knew it and she wanted control over the remaining days of her life.

As my family frantically tried to make sense of her inevitable death and I web-searched late into the night looking for answers, I found Compassion and Choices. Within a week they had worked with her and her doctors to arrange for her to take control of the end of her life. She followed all the steps and her signature was on the appropriate paperwork. It was unrecognizable, bearing no resemblance to the tidy finishing-school signature of her past, but it was there and with it came some serenity. She felt as if she had been able to do one thing where she was calling the shots. She would get to choose how and when the end would be. As she signed it, she told us she might never use it, but it gave her the option should she choose.

In the end, she never had a chance to make that decision. She went downhill too fast in those last weeks, but I know during her remaining alert hours she had some small sense that she was managing her destiny. She died at home with her family around her and I have never forgotten how much it meant to her to have that option. Compassion and Choices has often said the right to choose dignity in death is like an insurance policy. Many people never end up using it, but what it provides is a choice that allows those at end of life who have lost so much dignity and control over their daily existence to feel they can control one small but immeasurably significant part of their life. To that end, I have decided not only to support Compassion and Choices on a yearly basis, but to bequeath a sum to the organization in my will. I hope you will consider doing the same.

I have been a donor to Compassion and Choices since 2011 and now I am also a volunteer. I feel that the advances Compassion and Choices has made in encouraging medical care for the terminally ill, and in making the Right to Die legal in California and other states, are important to our continuing comfort. I plan to continue to contribute financially and actively to support their success. In my Trust, I have left a large portion of my estate to Compassion and Choices to encourage the wonderful work they are doing and all the things that they are achieving.

Compassion & Choices is doing incredible work to make medical aid in dying accessible for all. This important work is sometimes poorly understood by the general public, but C&C shares impactful stories and helps educate Americans about this issue. As the Baby Boomer generation ages, medical aid in dying will become an increasingly important question for millions of Americans. C&C is at the forefront. Anyone who cares about this issue should consider supporting Compassion & Choices.

I have donated to C and C for the last 13 years. Their work matters and they do such much with a limited budget. Advocating for choice at the end of life is not an easy topic and therefore raising money to do the important work is not easy.
I have known my donations will be used well advocating and supporting patients and families on those tough end of life decisions.

Compassion & Choices is a superior non-profit: well-organized, effective and competent in all those critical areas that make a donor want to give and give.

When my mother was at the end of her life, the doctor could not give her pills she could take for a peaceful death with her family gathered around her. Instead, we had to suffer with her for several weeks as she starved herself to death. And as it turned out, I was not able to be at her bedside when she died.
I am therefore very hopeful that the District of Columbia Council will soon pass a Death With Dignity Bill, so that if I or my husband should find ourselves in a similar situation, two doctors could give us pills with which to end our lives, with our children around us.
Because we feel so strongly about this issue, we are enthusiastic supporters of Compassion & Choices and its work to make a dignified death possible. I'm proud to give this organization a top rating as a Great Non-Profit!
Sarah G Epstein
Washington DC

I learned of Compassion and Choices by name from a close friend's daughter who represented it in California. I of course knew of the much needed assisted-dying options legally in progress or process in some states, but had no idea of the vast resource and personal consultant aid this remarkable organization also offers. (For example the two C and C -initiated Directive Forms regarding dementia and end-of-life measures,"My Particular Wishes," which you can add to your Advance Directive.) The free service of a personal voice and name "there" for you --during the challenging terminal stage of life--is simply beyond superlatives. As someone with a hospice background, I am proud to support and heartily recommend this nonprofit. Susan Barry, Horseshoe Bay, TX

Shortly after my Mom- 90, a California resident, emailed ( with child like spellings)from 3,000 miles away(New England) to say she felt like her head had opened up and everything she ever knew had flown out of it, that she was in big trouble and did not know what to do,(she ALWAYS knew what to do) she started asking for help to end her life.
She was an extremely competent, confident ,accomplished person whose entire self identity and worth was experiencing herself as a competent contributing person.
In our search for information and help, my brother and I first connected to Compassion and Choices in Washington state where he lives.
They were helpful compassionate listeners , sharing information but not pushing an agenda other than to answer our questions and suggest resources.
As we traveled along with Mom on her journey of diminished cognitive ability she never stopped realizing what was happening to her or begging for help to choose her exit time.
She was emphatic that she did not want to be at the point of "wetting the bed and not recognizing her own children". In the end at age 92 (and under hospice care) she was 'saved' from this outcome by a a diminishing heart rate that allowed her to be spared from the longer decline into loss of her own identity and self that dementia suffers can experience.
In honor of her life (and lack of choice at its end) I have been a supporter of Compassion and Choices. They are doing a remarkable job of educating people and working on legislation to give people the choices for death with dignity that are wanted.
I have found CC to be excellent at keeping donors informed of what is happening. I do not feel that they hit me up for donations each time I make one as with some organizations but rather that we are on a mutual journey to accomplish introduction of legislation and passage of choices for people if they want /need them during the last chapter of their lives. California's new law was not in time for my Mom but I celebrate it on her behalf and look for more states to offer compassion and choice including my own.

The people in this organization are very bright, passionate, and compassionate. I've worked with many non-profits, and none compare to the group of people who make up Compassion & Choices....they are so helpful, go out of their way to appreciate volunteers, donors, and handle inquiries brilliantly. Seriously, don't give it another thought....they are the best at what they do, are responsible and dedicated. They set a very high bar for any other non-profit. Joan Hoberman

C&C is a tremendously successful lobbying organization. It deserves most of the credit for getting death-with-dignity legislation enacted in California last year - in a special session of the legislature, bypassing all committees. I am a California lawyer and had judged this feat to be impossible. Barbara Combs-Lee, the president, and Dan Diaz are truly extraordinary spokespersons.

Thirty five years ago, when my parents were in their 60s, they wrote their first advanced directives. Every time we visited, they spoke passionately about their wishes not to be kept alive after quality of life was gone, nor to have money spent that could be used to help people in need. Now I’m in my 60s and I can see that many people still don’t have the opportunity to die peacefully and in the manner of their choosing. I’m grateful for Compassion & Choices’ commitment to keep this conversation alive until every state provides for end-of-life dignity.

Compassion & Choices is THE national end-of-life choices organization. I have been a donor for many years and continue to be impressed with the creative and excellent work of the organization. C&C uses every tool possible to get its message of choice to the public, government officials and its members. This last year alone they passed a law in California, won a court case in Montana and passed a ballot measure in the state of Washington. On the client side, the care is supportive and responsive. C&C has helped pave the way for people across the country to know and exercise their choices at the end of life.