Working to secure your right to make
your own end-of-life decisions
Who are we?
Compassion and Choices of Greater Boston was established as the Greater Boston Hemlock Society in l988. It later evolved into End-of-Life Choices Boston, and now is known by the present name above. It is a chapter of Compassion & Choices, a national umbrella group of 30,000 members that was formed in January 2005, representing the merger of two major national organizations, End-of Life-Choices and Compassion in Dying. Our Boston chapter serves almost 600 members in Eastern Massachusetts.
Our mission:
Compassion and Choices of Greater Boston, through education, advocacy, information, and discussion of end of life problems, works to assure that every American adult can look forward to comfort, dignity and choice at the end of life. We support the goals and policies of our parent national organization, Compassion and Choices. To help assure that no one is denied the option of a gentle and dignified death in the company of their loved ones we:
- Advocate in Massachusetts and nationally that doctors be permitted legally to prescribe whatever medical treatment they determine is appropriate as part of the continuum of care for their patient when the end of life is in sight. We feel that such treatment, under specific, well defined and documented circumstances, should include prescribing medication that the patient may use to bring his or her own life to a peaceful and certain end, as is done under the law in Oregon.
- Promote and facilitate use of the Massachusetts Health Care Proxy to assure that anyone who loses the capacity to make his or her own health care decisions is able to have available a previously appointed surrogate, whom they have chosen themselves, with the power to make those decisions for them;
- Offer information and make referrals on the telephone to persons facing difficult end of life choices; refer terminally ill patients who may wish to hasten their death to Compassion & Choices' experienced and respected client services program to obtain personal counseling in their homes about their options.
- Educate members and the public about their legal and ethical rights at the end of life.