Medical Aid in Dying (MAID)

About MAID

Medical aid in dying is a medical practice that allows mentally capable, terminally ill adults to request a prescription for life-ending medication from their health care provider. The person may self-administer the medication if and when s/he chooses.
Medical aid in dying is currently authorized in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, Colorado, California, Washington, D.C., Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine and as of 2021, the state of New Mexico. Qualified clinicians are required to confirm that a patient is fully informed and provide the patient with information about additional end of life options, including comfort care, hospice and pain control before providing a prescription.

Learn more about the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act. We can help you get through the process. 

Medical Aid in Dying

Resources

RESOURCES:

By: Lonny Shavelson, MD, American Academy of Medical Aid in Dying (aadm.org). Medical Aid in Dying: A Guide for Patients and Their Supporters, originated from the questions, interests, and needs of dying patients, their families, their loved ones, and the many others who support them. Its goal is to demystify and facilitate the process of medical aid in dying. Read online here: at jaidm.com. Updated August, 2026.

Compassion and Choices

improves care, expands options, and empowers everyone to chart their end-of-life journey. C&C works across the nation in communities, state legislatures, Congress, courts and medical settings to: educate the public about the importance of documenting end-of-life values and priorities and about the full range of available options; empower every individual with achievable options, authoritative information and constructive advice for guiding their care and engaging with their providers; advocate for expanded choices, secure and ready access to them and improved medical practice that puts patients first and values quality of life in treatment plans for terminal illness; defend existing end-of-life options from efforts to restrict access. See the Compassion & Choices NM webpage for more about the NM law.

Death With Dignity National Center

expands the freedom of all qualified terminally ill Americans to make their own end-of-life decisions, including how they die; promotes death with dignity laws around the United States based on the groundbreaking Oregon model; provides information, education, and support about Death with Dignity as an end-of-life option to patients, family members, legislators, advocates, healthcare and end-of-life care professionals, media, and the interested public; and mounts legal defense of physician-assisted dying legislation.

aadm.org (formerly American Clinicians Academy on Medical Aid in Dying) was established as an outgrowth of the successful National Clinicians Conference on Medical Aid in Dying at UC Berkeley, February 14/15, 2020. This non-profit informs and educates clinicians about medical aid in dying, from clinical discussions to evidence-based knowledge, from nursing care to the work of volunteers at the bedside, from medical ethics to pharmacology, and more.