LINKS TO SELECTED End-of-Life WEB SITES
 
Here are mission statements from  D&D websites. [My additions are in brackets.] The starred organizations support making more choices available. One of them,  Final Exit Network, may, under certain circumstances, send people to help deal with end-of-life situations. Carefully presented "how to" information is available from ERGO.  [This list was updated  in May of 2005.]

 

Americans for Better Care of the Dying

Every dying person needs to be able to count on excellent care.

Americans for Better Care of the Dying (ABCD) aims to improve end-of-life care by learning which social and political changes will lead to enduring, efficient, and effective programs. We work with the public, clinicians, policymakers, and other end-of-life organizations to make change happen.

Compassion and Choices*

[Links to the former Compassion in Dying and End-of-Life Choices sites are found here, as the two organizations have merged. Here are the mission statements for each organization:]

The Compassion in Dying Federation provides national leadership for client service, legal advocacy and public education to improve pain and symptom management, increase patient empowerment and self-determination and expand end-of-life choices to include aid-in-dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults.

[End-of-Life Choices]  works] toward improved care and expanded options at life's end, with goals of comprehensive, effective comfort care for every dying person, and legal and humane aid-in-dying if suffering is unbearable and cannot be relieved.... We work for the freedom to choose a dignified death and for individual control concerning death. We support the right of terminally ill, mentally competent adults to hasten death under careful safeguards

Death with Dignity *

The Death with Dignity National Center (DDNC) is the organization that has successfully proposed, passed, defended and helped implement a first-in-the nation law that allows terminally ill individuals meeting stringent safeguards, to hasten their own deaths. Since the law’s implementation, few have used it - all in extreme cases of late-stage terminal illness.  Yet despite its limited use, the law has provided limitless comfort to those in need.

The Death with Dignity law has become the national catalyst for reform in end-of-life care.  Physicians, journalists and pundits across the nation, have lauded Oregon's Death with Dignity law as a dynamic consciousness-raiser.  Proponents and opponents alike, agree that the recent sea change in palliative care and pain management can be attributed in part, to this unique law.  Death with dignity is distinct from euthanasia, lethal injection and the medical practices of the Netherlands.   

DDNC works with leaders in other states considering Oregon-style laws, as legislatures, medical communities and the public come to understand the law's benefits as well as the choice, control and comfort that the law affords.

Dying Well (Ira Byrock's web site)

Dr Ira Byock, long time palliative care physician and advocate for improved end-of-life care, and a past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, provides written resources and referrals to organizations, web sites and books to empower persons with life-threatening illness and their families to live fully.

[This site is filled with insightful descriptions into the unique experiences and needs of the person who is suffering from terminal illness or simply suffering. It focuses on providing the person with what he needs to live as he wishes to or believes he should during the last stage of his or her life.]

ERGO  (The Hemlock Society site)*

Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization (ERGO) holds that voluntary euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and self-deliverance are all appropriate life endings depending on the individual medical and ethical circumstances. [The site includes "how to" information about leaving life.]

Euthanasia  (against)

We are committed to the fundamental belief that the intentional
killing of another person is wrong. We have deep sympathy for
those people who are suffering.

[This sites Includes a long list of thoughtful articles on the issues involved in setting public policy, as well as in making an individual choice.]
Final Exit Network*

Our Goals:

  • To serve people who are suffering intolerably from an incurable physical condition which has become more than they can bear.
  • To foster research to find new peaceful and reliable ways to self-deliver.
  • To promote the use of advance directives with durable power of attorney for health care.
  • To advocate for individuals when their advance directives are not being honored.

We believe the needs of those who are dying are paramount.
We applaud the work of organizations that seek legislative action to strengthen our right to die a peaceful and painless death at the time and place of our choosing. However, we feel that legislative change will not come soon enough for the many people who need help NOW and in the interim!

We will serve many whom other organizations may turn away. The Exit Guide program of Final Exit Network accepts members with cancer, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, congestive heart failure, emphysema, and other incurable illnesses.

Growth House

Growth House, Inc., provides this award-winning portal as your international gateway to resources for life-threatening illness and end of life care. Our primary mission is to improve the quality of compassionate care for people who are dying through public education and global professional collaboration. Our search engine gives you access to the Internet's most comprehensive collection of reviewed resources for end-of-life care.

[The resources at this site include music and life-review or "reminiscence" therapy, which may be of interest to those taking care of people who are suffering.]
            International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Addressing the issues of euthanasia, assisted suicide, advance directives, assisted suicide proposals, "right-to-die" cases, euthanasia practices in the Netherlands, disability rights, pain control and much, much more.
 
Open Directory Project List of Sites

[...offers articles arranged by category, including those dealing with the cultural context of end-of-life issues.]
Public Agenda: Right-to-Die  

[This web-site is unique in its presentation of research and thinking on both sides of end-of-life issues. The site includes discussions of many other social topics.]

Right to Die Society of Canada*

A Better Future
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are covert and unregulated in the Canada of today. Also, their accessibility has more to do with "connections" than with need. They must become available within an open, regulated and equitable system.

A Better Present
People who are suffering intolerably from an incurable condition must have an adequate level of information and support with respect to every one of their options — including, though not limited to, the option of a hastened death.
 

To search for additional sites:

Try these key words using  Google or another search engine: “death and dying”, “euthanasia”, “hospice care”, “pain medication”, “suffering” or “quality of life”.. To refine your search, you can add “new" or "new developments (in)”.