a better exit for people facing incurable illness

When people are facing a progressive, incurable disease, they may reach a point when continued decline, loss of autonomy, or the prospect of prolonged suffering becomes unacceptable to them. Yet for many, the choices available to them at the end of life are limited by the laws of the state in which they live. 

A Better Exit is working to change that.

We are advocating for broader access to Medical Aid in Dying for people living with progressive, incurable diseases who are not currently eligible under existing state laws.  Our advocacy is focused on California, where we are working to broaden the End of Life Option Act (EOLOA) to include people whose conditions are not currently covered.

We hope that the work we do in California will inspire and inform similar efforts by others in states across the nation- so that more people facing devastating and irreversible illness can have meaningful choices at the end of life.

A future in which people facing progressive, incurable illness have the freedom to make meaningful choices about the end of their lives—including how and when they die.

The goal of expanding access to California’s end-of-life law for people with dementia and other progressive neurological conditions remains our major focus.  We sponsored an ambitious bill in 2024 (SB 1196) that would have done just that.  The fierce opposition to that bill, from within the legislature and powerful outside groups, led us to realize that to achieve our goal, crucial groundwork needs to be done in order for us to succeed.   

• We are growing our base of supporters by educating the public about California’s current law and why it needs to be amended.  
• We are enlisting the support of medical professionals who can help us persuade the California Medical Association and other healthcare organizations to support our goal.
• We continue our outreach to legislators to educate them about the need to expand access to the law.

YOU CAN HELP US BY

• Reaching out to your network of friends, acquaintances, and organizations to inform them about A Better Exit’s efforts and encourage them to join our list of supporters.
• Contacting organizations in your area and helping us schedule presentations about the specifics of MAID and the ways that California’s End of Life Option Act should be expanded.  If the organization has a newsletter, arrange for us to submit an article about MAID and A Better Exit’s mission.