End-of-Life Resources

Important Phone Numbers

• Suicide Hotline for San Diego (available 7/24): (800) 479-3339
• Suicide Hotline for entire U.S. (available 7/24): (800) 784-2433 or (800) 273-8255
• Suicide Hotline Website: http://suicidehotlines.com
• Friendship Line – for people 60 years and older. A crisis intervention hotline and a warmline for non-emergency emotional support calls: 800-971-0016.

Medical Aid in Dying

• Empowered Endings 858-925-7554 – End of life medical practice based in Southern California, lead by Dr. Bob and Elizabeth Uslander. 

Plan and Prepare

• Final Exodus – Plan Before the Sun Goes Down
• The Conversation Project – helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care.
• 6-Steps Living Will
• Go Wish-Playing cards designed to help you find words to talk about what is important
• POLST – Must be signed by a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant.  Different states have different names for this form.
• Medical Alert Jewelry, DNR & POLST:  The most accurate form of identification for patients outside of licensed facilities is a medallion or bracelet worn by the patient. There are only three (3) Approved Medallion Providers for the State of California:
  –Sticky J Medical ID 
  –MedicAlert Foundation
  –Caring Advocates Strategic Advance Care Planning 
• Creating your Life File:  A checklist for getting your affairs in order,

Podcasts  

• Death With Dignity Podcast

End-of-Life Organizations

• World Federation of Right to Die Societies
• Our Dying Right – Founded to shape the debate around end of life choices. Our Dying Right works to counter false narratives to ensure that the voices of the majority of Americans who want control over their deaths are heard. 
• The World Right-To-Die News Service – originally created and managed by Derek Humphry, author of the best-selling book Final Exit. Sign up here to receive automatic email updates about right-to-die issues
• Final Exit Network (FEN): (866) 654-9156. Here is an important article by a FEN coordinator that explains the process and limitations of the Final Exit Network.
• End of Life Choices California (760) 636-8009. Their volunteers can help navigate CA’s End of Life Option Act, advocate for pain and symptom management, meet with families to help them understand or complete advance directives.
• Academy of Aid-in-Dying Medicine. A non-membership organization, freely open to all clinicians and interested parties. They research, establish and inform best clinical practices for medical aid in dying. They also provide a Patient-to-Doctor Referral System to connect eligible patients with physicians who participate in medical aid in dying when appropriate.
• A Better Exit – Working to broaden California’s End of Life Option Act to include individuals suffering from progressive, incurable diseases that are not currently covered under the state law.
• (Private) Medical Group specializing in end of life care, Integrated MD Care (Dr. Bob Uslander)
• Death with Dignity National Center
• The Exit Euthanasia Blog (Scotland)
• Dignitas: +41 43 366 10 70
• San Diego Coalition for Improving End-of-Life Care
• New York End of Life Choices

Discussion Groups

• Death Cafe – worldwide organization with Cafe meet ups in the San Diego area.
• Sharp HospiceCare Bereavement and Support Groups
• The Elizabeth Hospice: Center for Compassionate Care Counseling Services
• Vitas Healthcare Bereavement and Grief Resources

Medical Futility Blog by Thaddeus Pope

Legal Resources

• Clinicians May Not Administer Life-Saving Medical Treatment Without Consent
• Advance Directive for Dementia from End of Life Choices New York

Books on Dying

For Those Who Haven’t Given Dying Much Thought:

• Achieving a Good Death (2024) – by Chris Palmer, This thoughtful and gentle guide, exploring one of the most difficult human topics, equips every reader with the information they need to overcome the anxiety and confusion that so often overwhelms end-of-life planning so they may intentionally plan for “a good death” that will provide comfort for all during one’s final act.
• The Inevitable: Dispatches on the Right to Die (2021) – by  Katie Engelhart.  “The suffering and distress of selected persons with painful and distressing illnesses who are looking for a quick, non-violent end is told in deep, thoughtful stories. And compassionate. We need to know exactly how it is for some.” -Derek Humphry
• Knocking on Heaven’s Door (2013) – by Katy Butler – Heart-breaking memoir of her father’s long decline and inevitable death.
• Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life (2017) – by Jessica Zitter, MD
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (2017) – by Atul Gawande, MD, MPH
• Finding Your Way to Say Goodbye, Comfort for the Dying and Those Who Care for Them, by Harold Ivan Smith (2002). From dealing with the medical staff to talking with family and friends who are in denial, this book is an ideal companion.

For Those Seeking Specific Solutions:

• Final Exit 2020  (2020) Digital – by Derek Humphry
• The Peaceful Pill Handbook (Constantly updated, digital and hardback editions) – by Drs. Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart. A comprehensive guide to voluntary assisted dying and self-deliverance for those seeking to control the manner and timing of their death. With clear illustrations, case studies, and risk ratings, the Handbook is designed to empower readers to make informed, autonomous decisions. 
• Going to Switzerland (2025 Edition) by Dr. Fiona Stewart and Dr. Philip Nitschke is a focused guide for individuals considering traveling to Switzerland for an assisted death, the only country  that allows non-residents to legally access voluntary assisted dying. 
• The Switzerland Alternative A free, online guide to everything you need to know about Switzerland’s end-of-life centers and how to access them.
• Five Last Acts: The arts and science of rational suicide in the face of unbearable, unrelievable suffering, 2nd Edition – (2015) – by Chris Docker
• The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide (2019) – by Katy Butler
• Finish Strong: Putting YOUR Priorities First at Life’s End (2018) – by Bartbara Coombs Lee, a nurse, physician assistant and attorney. Offers practical advice on how to stay off the overtreatment conveyor belt.
• That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour (2020) – by Sunita Puri on palliatve care A short review of That Good Night.
• VSED: Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking: A Compassionate, Widely Available Option for Hastening Death. (2021) – Edited by Timothy E. Quill, Paul T. Menzel, Thaddeus Pope, and Judith K. Schwarz
• Stopping Eating and Drinking, a Guide (2015) – by Boudewijn Chabot, MD, PhD
• Despedirse de la vida ayunando — Una guía (2017) – Spanish version of Stopping Eating and Drinking by Boudewijn Chabot, MD, PhD

The Unique Problem of Dementia:

• O, Let Me Not Get Alzheimer’s Sweet Heaven!: Why many people prefer death or active deliverance to living with dementia (2020) – by Colin Brewer.  
• Choosing to Die, a Personal Story, by Phyllis Shacter. The author’s view of what it was like to experience Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED), when her husband chose to die this way after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
• Still Alice (2007) – A novel by Lisa Genova, Ph. D.  (Harvard).  This neuroscientist/author  crafts a realistic portrait of  a fictional 50-year old woman diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.
• Dying to Die: The Janet Adkins Story. (2019) – by Susan Clevenger. The first, and only person with Alzheimer’s to end her life with the help of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. 

Early Seminal Works:

• Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying (1991) – by Derek Humphry.  Currently in the third edition, this book was  has been translated into 12 languages.  It is the classic do-it-yourself book written by the visionary founder of the Hemlock Society USA.
• How We Die, Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter (1993)  – by Sherwin B. Nuland, MD. A National Non-Fiction Book Award Winner 1994 and finalist for the Pultizer Prize in 1995. The book describes the physical deterioration that occurs with common causes of death such as heart attack and cancer, and the resistance of doctors, patients and family members to discuss death honestly and openly.
• On Death and Dying (1969) – by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, MD. Describes the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
• Ending Life: Ethics and the Way we Die (2005) – by Margaret Pabst Battin. A philosophical discussion of bioethical issues in the field of death. In 2008, Battin’s husband became quadriplegic after a bicycle accident, which caused her to refine her thinking about assisted dying. She discusses the coercive opposition from loved ones who want the patient to live. Peggy’s husband died in 2013 after he requested to turn off his life support.

History of the Right-to-Die Movement:

• A Dignified Ending: Taking Control Over How We Die  (2019) – by Lewis M. Cohen, MD  – history of the right to die movement and interviews with those who took control
• In Search of Gentle Death The Right for Your Right to Die with Dignity (2012) – by Richard N. Cote. Includes interviews with leaders in the right-to-die movement, including Derek Humphrey, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Dr. Rodney Syme, Dr. Richard McDonald, and many others.
• The Inevitable: Dispatches on the Right to Die

Fiction:

• Pride & Dignity (2020) –  by Alastair Neil  A fictional account of the disagreement between father and son when the father seeks to die in a Swiss clinic.     View an interview with the author of this book.
• Boomsday (2008) – by Christopher Buckley.  A hilarious novel.   A blogger, outraged over mounting Social Security debt, suggests that Baby Boomers be given government incentives to kill themselves by age 75.

Uncategorized:

• Cruel Death, Heartless Aftermath: My Family’s End-of-Life Nightmare and How To Avoid It (2019) – by Barbara Mancini. Her father did it all correctly. He made his advance directive, discussed it with family, repeatedly expressed his end-of-life wishes to friends, doctors and hospice, yet in the end he was subjected to medical torture for 5 days. His daughter, an ER nurse, was arrested for assisting a suicide and spent $100,000 defending herself for an entire year before the case against her was dismissed.
• To Die Well: Your Right to Comfort, Calm, and Choice in the Last Days of Life (2008) – by Sidney Wanzer and Joseph Glenmullen
• The Last Goodnights: Assisting My Parents with their Suicides (2010) – by John West. In some locales, Mr. West may have been prosecuted for assisting the suicide of his parents. But West and his parents lived in Los Angeles, California.
• Last Wish (1998) – by Betty Rollin
• Deathing: An Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life (1989) – by Anya Foos-Graber
• A Time to Die: The Place for Physician Assistance – by Charles F. McKhann
• Dignified Dying (2015) – by Boudewijn Chabot, MD, PhD
• A Graceful Passage (1990) – by Arnold R. Beiser, MD
• Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond: A Practical Primer to Help You and Your Loved Ones Prepare Medically, Legally, and Emotionally for the End of Life (2009) – by Jane Brody
• Final Victory : Taking Charge of the Last Stages of Life, Facing Death on Your Own Terms – by Thomas A Preston, MD (2000).  Advice on how to live the final stages of life.
• Patient Directed Dying, a Call for Legalized Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill, by Tom Preston, MD.  (1997)  Why aid-in-dying is not suicide when used by terminally ill patients
• The Best Way to Say Goodbye (2007)- by Stan Terman
• Before We Say Goodbye (2009) – by Sean Davison.  A son’s account of caring for his 84-year old terminally ill mother and her request to help her die.
• To Die Like a Dog (2002) – by Lesley Martin
• The Walk to the Paradise Garden (2011) – fiction – by Leon Arden
• One True Thing (1994) – fiction – by Anna Quindlen
• Never Say Die (2011) – by Susan Jacoby
• Death with Dignity (2011) – by Robert Orfali
• Wrong Medicine, 2nd edition (2011) – by Larry Schneiderman and Nancy Jecker
• A Good Death (2008) – by Rodney Syme

Movies and DVDs on Hastened Death

Most are available at Amazon.com

• Blackbird
• Go Gentle
• Robin’s Wish
• Final Exit
• A Finished Life
• Grace Quigley
• One True Thing
• The Sea Inside
• Right of Way
• Million Dollar Baby
• Honey (Miele)
• You Don’t Know Jack
• The Barbarian Invasions
• It’s My Party
• How to Die in Oregon
• Short Stay in Switzerland
• Soylent Green
• The Helium Method
• Eyewitness

TV Documentary

• Vice Episode on Right to Die

YouTube

• Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED)  a legal, peaceful way to avoid prolonged suffering at end of life.
• Rosemary Bowen’s Fast At age 94, Rosemary Bowen suffered a spinal compression fracture which left her in constant pain and unable to live independently. Her choice to die by VSED is chronicled day-by-day in this video.