August 7 marked one year since legislation to improve access to Colorado’s End-of-Life Options Act was enacted.
Signed by Governor Jared Polis last June, SB68 shortened the mandatory minimum waiting period between oral requests for a medical aid-in-dying prescription from 15 days to seven days, allowing a prescribing provider to waive the waiting period if the patient is not likely to survive it and meets all other qualifications, and allows qualified advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) to be prescribing providers.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Center for Health and Environmental Data published their 2024 End-of-Life Options Act data summary and trends in late April.
In 2024, 510 patients received prescriptions for aid-in-dying medications, a 28 percent increase in the number of prescriptions compared to 2023 (398). Among those prescribed aid-in-dying medication in 2024, the department received reports for 313 patients to whom aid-in-dying medication was dispensed, and among those prescribed aid-in-dying medication they received death certificates for 429 patients compared to 362 in 2023 (the reported number of death certificates also includes patients who received a prescription but died without having ingested aid-in-dying medication.)
The data confirms the efficacy of improvement legislation which Compassion & Choices continues to support in states where advocates or data indicate access may be improved. Similar bills have been passed to improve access in other authorized states, including California, Hawai‘i, Oregon and Washington. These bills do not affect the core safeguards included in every U.S. medical aid-in-dying law. It also mirrors our analysis that, overall in authorized jurisdictions, fewer than two-thirds of patients who receive an aid-in-dying prescription go on to ingest the medication. Just having gone through the process and knowing the medication is available if desired provides peace of mind in their final days.
These legislative wins are a testament to how ongoing advocacy is making medical aid in dying more accessible to those who need it while maintaining the laws’ proven core safeguards.