Dear members of Final Options Illinois,

Our movement keeps rolling along ... the tide of encouraging news keeps on coming.

Aid in dying has been available in our Washington DC, our nation's capital, since June 6. The Massachusetts Medical Society has voted, by an overwhelming 152 to 56 majority, to drop its opposition to aid in dying, and to engage with the process of developing a law (this overwhelmingly positive news was exactly what happened in California and Colorado before those states passed their own aid in dying laws.)  The Canadian aid in dying law is going strong, well into its second year, with nearly 2,000 people taking advantage of it in its first year.  And the Australian state of Victoria, home to Melbourne, the country's second largest city, has just passed an aid in dying law. 

Read all about it in our latest December newsletter, together with a moving article by proud FOI member Amanda Breeden, and a profound op-ed, "An Obituary I Would Like To See," by Janis Landis, president of Final Exit Network.  (If we have your address, you should be receiving it in the mail sometime this week.)

All of this good news is no surprise, because aid in dying is an idea whose time has come.  If you've ever nursed a loved one who's had a bad death ... if you're facing a bad death yourself ... you know what it's all about.  Life is precious.  As long as we can tolerate our suffering, we fight to stay alive.  But the diseases that kill us often cause agonizing pain and intolerable suffering in their final stages.  In that situation -- you're going to die, the only question is how -- it can be a very rational choice to say, no thanks, I'd prefer to skip my final agonies.  No one must ever be encouraged or coerced to do so, but the CHOICE must become a fundamental human right of every mentally capable adult.

Please help us make it happen, right here in Illinois, by renewing your support of Final Options Illinois.  Click here to contribute online -- it only takes a second -- or send checks or credit card info to us at the address below.  Please contribute generously ... or contribute a token amount, whatever you can afford ...the important thing is that you do it.  Also, contributions to Final Options Illinois are tax-deductible as allowed by law, so it's an excellent time to send that year-end gift.

On behalf of the board of Final Options Illinois, my most sincere thank you for your support and all that you do to help advance this most important movement, the final frontier of human liberation.

Yours for the cause of aid in dying,

Ed Gogol, President, Final Options Illinois -- Donate
1055 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. #F212, Chicago IL 60660 -- 815-366-7942 or 224-565-1500
www.finaloptionsillinois.org -- [email protected]