Quick Links:
- Supporting Organizations
- Physicians Support
- The Pope
- Clergy Support

Organizations dedicated to civil rights and underserved populations, especially in the southern part of the state, sought assurances that AB 374 serves principles of justice and equity. Assembly members Karen Bass (D–Los Angeles) and Jackie Goldberg (D–Los Angeles), lawmakers with impeccable credentials in these areas wrote to these friends and encouraged them to join us. Read these inspiring letters.

Karen Bass Read Letter (PDF)

Jackie Goldberg Read Letter (PDF)

Compassion & Choices and End-of-Life Choices California support, advocate and educate for choice and care at the end of life. We believe that no one should have to suffer at the end of life, particularly when the dying process is prolonged or agonizing.

Our Statement of Principles says it all:

We support laws that ensure that in the event of a terminal illness, our families, our health care providers, and our own deeply held beliefs will determine our end-of-life choices.

We support laws that preserve our dignity when we have reached the end of life by empowering us to direct our own end-of-life care.

We believe every American should execute advance directives to guarantee control of health care decisions at the end of life.

Compassion & Choices also offers comprehensive client support as well as information, education and advocacy programs. For more about us, click here

California Alliance for Consumer Protection

JOIN US TODAY!

If you would like to be an official support of our organization, please feel free to contact us

Doctors, Nurses, Clergy, Lawyers & Families Support Compassionate Choices. Join an Affinity Group That Supports End-of-Life Choices For the Terminally-Ill.

Click Here & Show Your Support!

Caring for dying patients includes the sacred duty to listen to their fears, communicate their options, and honor their choices for end of life care.”

Physicians for Compassionate Choices

“I believe it is our responsibility to listen to our patients; and if medically, morally and legally possible provide them with the comfort they request. It should be the patient’s decision and physicians should honor patients’ autonomy and choice. Dying is a private experience, and should be in the hands of the patient with support from the physician.”

C. Ronald Koons, MD
Chair, Ethics Committee
UC Irvine Medical Center

“Physicians of good will, deep religious convictions and considerable palliative care experience exist on both sides of the debate about legalization of physician assisteddying. In an effort to respect this diversity, and to encourage our profession to continue to struggle with the genuine dilemmas faced by some patients toward the end of their lives and by their families, we argue in favor of medical organizations taking a position of studied neutrality on this contentious issue."

Timothy E. Quill MD & Christine K. Cassel MD
Annals of Internal Medicine 2003

“To require dying patients to endure unrelievable suffering, regardless of their wishes, is callous and unseemly. Death is hard enough without being bullied. Like the relief of pain, this too is a matter of mercy.”

Marcia Angell MD, Senior Lecturer
Harvard Medical School,
Former Editor-in-Chief
New England Journal of Medicine

“The data confirms, for the seventh year, that the policy in Oregon is working. There is no evidence of abuse or coercion or misuse of the policy.”

Arthur Caplan, Director
University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics
Amicus Curae Brief, Gonzalez vs. Oregon

“I have no compunction about saying that if I was dying from a terminal illness, and life had become completely joyless and I was in pain, I would want to consider (assisted dying).”

John Garner, British Medical Association,
supporting BMA’s move away from opposing
compassionate choices laws

“Results of a national survey of 1,088 physicians revealed that a clear majority of physicians believe that it is ethical to assist an individual who has made a rational choice to die due to unbearable suffering.”

Louis Finkelstein
Institute for Religious and Social Studies

“Most requests for assistance are made by patients enrolled in hospice programs are discussed with co-workers, often at interdisciplinary conferences. Many such patients are evaluated by clinical social workers with expertise in end-of-life care.”

Ann Jackson MBA.
Executive Director, Oregon Hospice

“When physicians understand the law and the safeguards, they become less willing to act outside such a safe harbor; they report a magnified sense of scrutiny that inhabits participation even within the law."

Linda Ganzini MD,
Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine
Oregon Health Science University

“Persons with cancer comprise the largest group of PAS users, but patients with ALS have the highest rate of PAS consideration. Patients with cancer and ALS may be disproportional represented because both diseases tend to have long death trajectories and minimal cognitive impact, allowing patients time and ability to fully consider and complete the formal request process.”

Susan W. Toll MD, Director
Center for Ethics in Healthcare
Oregon Health Science University Portland

“Those of us opposed to physician-assisted suicide would do well to focus our efforts on helping others discover the meaning and hope that are possible in life, even in the midst of suffering. We can accomplish far more by reaching out in a loving, caring manner to those experiencing great suffering, instead of sitting around and moralizing about what they should or should not do and threatening physicians with legal penalties if they act in ways at odds with values we hold dear.”

Daniel E. Lee, Ethics Teacher
Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois
Author: Navigating Right and Wrong:
Ethical Decision Making in a Pluralistic Age

Negotiation of transitions in life is central to the practice of psychiatry, and certainly the passage to death is the ultimate example. For those who wish to be sentient for this passage and are capable of appreciating this transition, we are uniquely qualified companions, counselors and facilitators.”

Wesley Sowers, M.D. medical director for the
Office of Behavioral Health
in the Department of Human Services for
Allegheny County, PA.

Doctors, Nurses, Clergy, Lawyers & Families Support Compassionate Choices. Join an Affinity Group That Supports End-of-Life Choices For the Terminally-Ill.

Click Here & Show Your Support!

“Those who practice charity in the church’s name will never seek to impose the church’s faith upon others.”

—Pope Benedict XVI declares in his first encyclical letter “Dues Caritas Est (God Is Love).”

"Deus Caritas Est" acknowledges this: "A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the church," where politics is "the sphere of the autonomous use of reason." The role of the church is to "bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good," not to "impose on those who do not share the faith ways of thinking and modes of conduct proper to faith."

—Pope Benedict XVI in his first encyclical or papal letter addressing "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love") as paraphrased by Philosopher Austin Dacey (NY Times, 2/3/2006).

Read more here (PDF)

“What makes Christianity potentially dangerous as a source of conflict and intolerance in a pluralistic society is its insistence that faith is reasonable — that is, that it is the source of knowledge about this world and that, therefore, its teaching should apply to all, believers and nonbelievers alike.”

—Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, NY Times (2/3/2006)

Read more here (PDF)

As a Catholic theologian I have long considered such a choice to be morally and ethically acceptable in extreme and strictly safeguarded circumstances and there is nothing in AB 374 that cannot be supported by a Catholic.

Dr. Maguire's complete letter here (PDF)

Dr. Daniel C. Maguire teaches Moral Theology and Ethics at Marquette University in Milwaukee. A graduate of Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, Dan has written over 150 articles for publication, authored or edited 13 books, and is founder and president of The Religious Consultation. He is a popular lecturer and frequent radio & TV guest.

www.religiousconsultation.org

“People of different faiths and beliefs agree that life is sacred and should be respected and preserved as long as humanly possible. However, when death is imminent, it is entirely respectful to the sanctity of life to allow a person to decide for himself or herself when and how they can ease their pain and suffering in a dignified manner.”

—Reverend Dr. Ignacio Castuera, of the St. John's United Methodist Church in Watts

“When we live as though death is the worst thing that can happen to us, we lose the zest for living. The Compassionate Choices Act allows one to have a ‘good death.’ ”

—Rev. Paul Smith of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, to fellow African-American ministers

Read Letter (PDF)

"There are times when the ending of life is the best that life offers. Moral man will see this, and then, more than ever, know the full price of freedom.”

—Daniel C. Maguire, Professor of Moral Theological Ethics at Marquette University, a Jesuit Catholic Institution.

“Most people will cling to hope until their last breath. Some decide differently. What is most important is for people to know they have a choice, and to enable them to make the best end-of-life decisions for themselves.”

—Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, leader of the oldest Conservative Judaism congregation on the West Coast for 40 years.

“The decision-making power should reside with the individual, who alone is to be granted the legal right to determine how and when his or her life is to come to an end. That is how we will surround death with the dignity that this ancient friend deserves.”

—John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey.

“Our faith in God does not require us to prolong people’s needless suffering. I believe dying people should have choice.”

—Rev. John Brooke, United Church of Christ.

More than 100 California clergy have endorsed providing terminally ill patients with compassionate end of life choices, including:

-Rev. John V. Albright, Sr. – United Methodist Church
-Rev. John F. Anderson – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Jerry Anderson – Episcopal Church
-Rev. Brandon Austin – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Frank Baldwin – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Ken Barnes – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Carol Barriger – United Church of Christ
-Rabbi Lewis M. Barth – Jewish
-Rev. David Bennett – United Methodist Church
-Rabbi Linda Bertenthal – Jewish
-Rabbi Jonathan Biatch – Jewish
-Rev. Tim Boeve – Reformed Church in America
-Rev. Frederick M. Bradley – United Church of Christ
-Rev. W. Matthew Broadbent – United Church of Christ
-Rev. John Brooke – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Jacqualine L. Brown – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Dr. Ken Brown – Unitarian Universalist
-Dr. Raymond Kay Brown – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rabbi Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik – Jewish
-Rev. Cathleen Cox Burneo – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Barry Cammer – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Paul Chaffee – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Louis A. Chase – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Alexandra Childs – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Garry Cox – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. Norman Cram – Episcopal Church
-Rev. Melora Lynn Crooker – Unitarian Universalist
-Elder Aretha Crowell – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. Donald J. Cunningham – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Dr. Peter R. Danylchuk – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Kristi Denham – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Thomas E. Duggan – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Elder Susan Eaton – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. Paul W. Egertson, PhD. – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
-Rev. William Eilers – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Joyce Ellis – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Don Fado – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Don Felt – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Pam Fine – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Joan Bates Forsberg – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Claude Friesen – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Curt Fuller – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Howard Fuller – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Dr. Diana C. Gibson – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. Stephen Glauz-Todrank – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Alice Ann Glenn – United Methodist Church
-Rev. M. Laurel Gray – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
-Rev. Richard E. Harris – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Darlene Hawkins – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. C. Douglas Hayward – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Divina Himaya – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Elbert D. Hoffman – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Thomas B. Hubbard – Episcopal Church
-Rev. William Hutchinson – United Church of Christ
-Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs – Reform Judaism
-Rev. Dr. David J. Jamieson – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Thomas Johnson – Episcopal Church
-Rev. Keenan Colton Kelsey – Presbyterian Church (USA
-Elder Konrad Kingshill – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. Peter Laarman – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Jerry D. Lawritson – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Dr. Donna Lindsey – United Church of Christ
-Dr. Robert C. Lodwick – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rabbi Dana Magat – Reform Judaism
-Rabbi Allen S. Maller – Reform Judaism
-Rev. James K. Manley – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Penelope D. Mann – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Dr. Warren McClain – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. David McCracken – United Church of Christ
-Rev. William McKinney – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Melinda V. McLain – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Charles Wm. Mensendiek – United Church of Christ
-Rev. William P. Miller – United Methodist Church
-Rev. John Millspaugh – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Kenneth Mitchell – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Grace Jones Moore – Disciples of Christ
-Rev. Richard O. Moore – United Church of Christ
-Rev. William Moremen – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Dr. Jim Nelson – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Kathleen Owens – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Virginia Pearson – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Alan Piotter – Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
-Rev Ernie Pipes – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Jeanne Audrey Powers – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Cathleen L. Price – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Dr. George F. Regas – Episcopal Church
-Rev. Dr. Lynn Rhodes – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Henry R. Rust – United Church of Christ
-Rev. William C. Sanford – United Methodist Church
-Rev. James Scherfee – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Lloyd A. Schneider, Jr. – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Larold Schulz – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Madison Shockley – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Mary Jo Siders – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Grace H. Simon – Unitarian Universalist
-Rabbi Suzanne Singer – Jewish
-Rev. Dan Smith – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Sparks – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Dr. Betty Stapleford – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Stanley Stefancic – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Gerald Stinson – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Judith Stone – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Deborah Streeter – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Dr. Laird Stuart – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. Andrew Summers – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Paul Tellstrom – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Dr. David Thompson – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. H.A. "Bud" Tillinghast – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Barbara B. Troxell – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Jane C. Turner – Episcopal Church
-Rev. Louise L. Ulrich – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Willem VandeKamp – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Lee Van Ham – Presbyterian Church (USA)
-Rev. Ronald L. Weber – United Church of Christ
-Rev. Bets Wienecke – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Ned Wight – Unitarian Universalist
-Rev. Milton Otto Winkler – United Methodist Church
-Rev. Dr. Dickson K. Yagi – Southern Baptist

RELIGIOUS LEADERS ENDORSE FREEDOM OF RELIGION, COMPASSIONATE CHOICES LAW (PDF)

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