Please join us in our struggle for the most basic of human liberties - the liberty to make choices about how we live and die. In 1997 Compassion in Dying brought two landmark legal challenges, Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill , to the United States Supreme Court, to seek the right of adult, terminally ill, mentally competent individuals to obtain a prescription from their physicians to hasten death. Although the Court declined to recognize the right at that time, the cases brought national attention to the needs of dying individuals and prompted dialogue and debate throughout the country. Much medical reform to improve care of the dying has come in the aftermath of these cases. No one should ever consider a hastened death because they are not receiving adequate treatment for their pain.
Compassion has a number of strategies, using the legal system to promote effective pain treatment.
Working with medical licensing boards to decrease physicians' risk of professional discipline for prescribing adequate narcotics to treat pain at the end of life. Prompting disciplinary action in specific cases where physicians under treat pain and cause unnecessary suffering at the end of life. Challenging state laws that create barriers and deter doctors from providing adequate pain management. An important part of the Federation's role is to encourage and guide development of local Compassion affiliates. Compassion organizations are locally governed and controlled.