More than 100 terminally ill New Mexicans used the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act to die peacefully since the law went into effect in June 2021, clinicians report. The majority (90%) of those patients were enrolled in hospice and the prescribing clinicians were at their bedside. The law allows terminally ill, mentally capable adults the option to request a medication they may decide to take to die peacefully. 

Other findings in the report include:

• More than a dozen New Mexico healthcare providers have prescribed aid-in-dying medication for eligible terminally ill patients;

• About 25 New Mexico clinicians have been trained and are willing to offer medical aid in dying to eligible terminally ill patients;

• Several New Mexico hospice organizations have fully incorporated medical aid in dying into their scope of services, including allowing their clinicians to offer medical aid in dying. 

• EOLONM has facilitated successful referrals if needed for medical aid in dying for all those patients who requested it.

“The Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act is working as intended,” said Rep. Debbie Armstrong, who authored the law. “Terminally ill New Mexicans are no longer forced to die in pain. They have the ability to decide when enough is enough.”