COMPASSION & CHOICES

(Redirected from Hemlock Society)

'Compassion & Choices' is a nonprofit organization focused on patients’ rights and end of life choice. It was formed by the merging of two choice-in-dying organizations in 2004: 'Compassion in Dying' and 'End-of-Life Choices' (formerly the 'Hemlock Society'). According to the organization's Fall 2006 magazine, they have 45,000 members and 52 local chapters. It is the largest organization of its kind in the United States.

Contents
Terminally ill patient services
Legal work
See also
External links

Terminally ill patient services


Compassion & Choices provides counselors who talk with terminally ill patients and their families through its Client Support Program at no cost. Professional counselors and trained volunteers work by phone or in person to offer assistance in completing advance directives (living will); referrals to local services including hospice and illness-specific support groups; advice on adequate pain and symptom management; and information on patient-directed dying.

Legal work


Compassion & Choices’ legal advocacy team litigates patient cases related to ensuring adequate end-of-life care and choice. The Compassion & Choices’ legal advocacy team represented 16 terminally ill patient-plaintiffs at the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Oregon, defeating the Bush administration challenge to Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act in January of 2006.
Through litigation, Compassion & Choices establishes terminally ill patient’s right to pain and symptom management; to voluntarily stop life-sustaining treatments; to request and receive palliative sedation; and to choose aid in dying under state and federal constitutional protections.
'Compassion & Choices Action Network' is the legislative advocacy arm of Compassion & Choices. The Action Network seeks to pass Oregon-style aid-in-dying legislation throughout the United States; laws that strengthen advance directives; and laws that mandate palliative care training for health care providers.

See also



Euthanasia

Right to die

External links



Compassion & Choices

This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.

psst.. try this: add to faves