| Death with Dignity National Center | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Respect the will of the people |
| Formation | 1993 |
| Type | Education, defense and advocacy |
| Headquarters | Portland, Oregon |
| Location | United States |
| Staff | 7 |
| Website | www.DeathwithDignity.org |
Death with Dignity National Center (DDNC) is a nonprofit organization located in Portland, Oregon which has led the defense of and education about Death with Dignity laws throughout the US. It partners with Oregon Death with Dignity Political Action Fund, a 501(c)(4), which lobbies to enact Death with Dignity laws in other states.
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"The mission of the Death with Dignity National Center (DDNC) is to provide information, education, research and support for the preservation, implementation and promotion of Death with Dignity laws which allow a terminally ill, mentally competent adult the right to request and receive a prescription to hasten death under certain specific safeguards. We promote Death with Dignity laws based on our model legislation, the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, as a stimulus to nationwide improvements in end-of-life care and as an option for dying individuals. We accomplish our mission by working to defend and promote Death with Dignity laws in court, and in the court of public opinion through our nonprofit Death with Dignity National Center [501(c)(3)], and by working directly with public policymakers through our affiliated Political Action Fund [501(c)(4)]."[1]
In 1993 Oregon Right to Die, a political action committee, was founded to draft and pass Oregon's Death with Dignity ballot measure 16.[2] After Measure 16 passed in 1994 the Oregon Death with Dignity Legal Defense and Education Center was founded to defend the voter approved law. Also in 1994 the Death with Dignity National Center formed in Washington DC to help defend and promote Death with Dignity laws throughout the United States.
After the successful collaboration of the Death with Dignity Alliance starting in 1997 three of the organizations in the alliance—Oregon Death with Dignity, Oregon Death with Dignity Legal Defense and Education Center, and Death with Dignity National Center—merged and became Death with Dignity National Center and Oregon Death with Dignity Political Action Fund in 2004.[3][4] Another alliance member, Compassion in Dying, later merged with End-of-Life Choices (formerly the Hemlock Society) and became Compassion and Choices.
A few prominent and long-standing board members include Eli D. Stutsman, Betty Rollin, and Timothy Quill:
Through its different organizational structures over the years, Death with Dignity National Center has played a central role in defending and upholding Oregon's Death with Dignity law[9], culminating in the Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Oregon.[10][11][12]
The organization has assisted with efforts to pass Death with Dignity laws in other states such as Maine in 2000[13] and Hawaii in 2002[14][15][16]. The most recent effort led to the voter approved Washington Death with Dignity Act in 2008.[17]