Death with Dignity National Center

Death with Dignity National Center
Motto Respect the will of the people
Formation 1993
Type Education, defense and advocacy
Headquarters Portland, Oregon
Location
Staff
7
Website www.DeathwithDignity.org

Death with Dignity National Center (DDNC) is a 501(c)3, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Portland, Oregon that has led the legal defense of and education about Death with Dignity laws throughout the US for 20 years. DDNC helped write and defend the nation’s first successful Death with Dignity law, in Oregon, protecting the right of persons with terminal illness to control their own deaths. The organization is affiliated with the Death with Dignity Political Fund, a distinct and separate 501(c)4 entity responsible for the political defense of Death with Dignity laws and the promotion of these initiatives in other states around the U.S.

Mission

"The mission of the Death with Dignity National Center is to promote Death with Dignity laws based on our model legislation, the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, both to provide an option for dying individuals and to stimulate nationwide improvements in end-of-life care.[1]

History

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] The following year the Oregon Right to Die PAC (ORDPAC) campaigned successfully for the passage of Measure 16 in Oregon; 51% of Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity ballot initiative which created the Oregon Death With Dignity Law (DWD) allowing those who are terminally ill to hasten death in consultation with their physician and under strict safeguards, making Oregon the first U.S. state and one of the first jurisdictions in the world to officially do so. Subsequently, the Oregon Death with Dignity Legal Defense and Education Center (ODLDEC), the forerunner to the Death with Dignity National Center, a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded to defend the voter-approved law. In 1997, Oregon Right to Die Political Action Committee successfully defeated Measure 51, an attempt to ban Death with Dignity in Oregon, by a margin of 60% to 40%.

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.

In 2000 DDNC led the effort on Question 1, the Death with Dignity campaign in Maine. The measure lost by a narrow margin, 51% to 49%, with only a 6,000 vote difference statewide. In 2001 DDNC partnered with activists in Vermont to establish Death with Dignity Vermont, and in 2002 DDNC launched an effort in Hawaii to pass Death with Dignity legislation through the legislative process. In 2003 ODLDEC is renamed the Death with Dignity National Center (DDNC).

From 2001–2006 DDNC defended Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law against U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and his successor Alberto Gonzales who attempted to block DWD by authorizing federal drug agents to prosecute doctors who help terminally ill patients die. In January 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the case of Gonzales v. Oregon, that former Attorney General John Ashcroft overstepped his authority in attempting to prosecute Oregon’s physicians and pharmacists.

In 2008 DDNC successfully led the coalition for Yes on I-1000, Washington State’s Death with Dignity campaign, to a 58%-42% win. Washington’s Death with Dignity law went into effect in March 2009.

In 2011, DDNC partnered with Patient Choices Vermont to help pass Death with Dignity legislation through their legislature. Vermont Governor Shumlin signed the Vermont Death with Dignity bill into law in 2013. In the meantime, DDNC established Dignity 2012 to pass Death with Dignity legislation in Massachusetts. The issue made it on the November ballot and was narrowly (51% to 49%) defeated.

Organization

Death with Dignity is a 501(c)(3) organization governed by a Board of Directors. Current members include:

Prominent former board members include

Political activism

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] Hawaii in 2002, and Massachusetts in 2012.[14][15][16]

The most recent successful efforts led to the voter approved Washington Death with Dignity Act in 2008,[17] the first-ever death with dignity law[18] passed through a State legislature, in Vermont.,[19] and the California End of Life Option Act in 2015.

In all, Death with Dignity Center has been instrumental in drafting, passing, promoting, and defending all existing Death with Dignity statutes in the U.S.

See also

References

  1. "About Death with Dignity National Center".
  2. "The Physician-Assisted Suicide Oregon Trail". Final Exit.
  3. "Death with Dignity movement history". Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization.
  4. "Death with Dignity National Center chronology". Death with Dignity National Center. Archived from the original on 2010-12-25.
  5. "Eli D. Stutsman Death with Dignity Biography". Archived from the original on 2011-07-10.
  6. Greenhouse, Linda (February 23, 2005). "Justices Accept Oregon Case Weighing Assisted Suicide". The New York Times.
  7. "Supreme Court of the United States Brief for the Respondents" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 14, 2009.
  8. "University of Rochester Medical Center".
  9. "Arguments in Opposition of Ballot Measure 51". Oregon State Elections Division.
  10. "Full text of the Supreme Court's decision" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United States.
  11. Lane, Charles (2005-02-23). "Justices to Hear Challenge to Oregon Assisted-Suicide Law". The Washington Post.
  12. Lewin, Adrienne Mand. "Supreme Court Upholds Oregon Assisted Suicide Law". ABC News.
  13. "Ballotopedia Maine Physician-assisted Deaths Question One".
  14. Arakawa, Lynda. "Bill on Assisted Suicide Advances". The Honolulu Advertiser. Archived from the original on 2010-12-25.
  15. Pang, Gordon Y.K. "'Death with Dignity' Bill Shelved". The Honolulu Advertiser. Archived from the original on 2010-12-25.
  16. "History of the 2002 Near Win". Hawai`i Death with Dignity Society. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26.
  17. "Yes on I-1000 Contributors". National Institute on Money in State Politics.
  18. "Vermont Act No. 39. Relating to patient choice and control at end of life." (PDF).
  19. "Assisted suicide: Vermont governor signs ‘death with dignity’ measure".
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