Documentary Promotes Aid-in-Dying Bills

Compassion & Choices, a group that supports state medical aid-in-dying bills, has helped produce “Take Me Out Feet First,” a documentary series about the topic.

The Littleton, Colorado-based group backed Serene Meshel-Dillman, a California filmmaker who created the series to show how California’s End of Life Option Act affected her parents.

Meshel-Dillman’s parents moved to California from New York in the early 1990s. Both of them were diagnosed with cancer. Her mother used life-ending care in 2017, and her father used life-ending care in 2022.

Meshel-Dillman said her parents had control over when their life ended because they moved to California.

“They would not have had that option if they still had lived in New York,” she said.

What it means: The demographic age shift that’s generating discussions about retirement income planning and estate planning is leading to more conversations about hospice care and end-of-life options.

The legislation: Compassion & Choices says 12 states have enacted medical aid-in-dying laws.

Two aid-in-dying bills in New York state, A995a and S2445a, have attracted support from 88 co-sponsors, the group says.

The opposition: Many religious groups, groups for people with disabilities and medical groups continue to oppose aid-in-dying legislation.