Empowering Peaceful Endings Together

Planning your end-of-life journey can present some of life’s toughest decisions. In those moments, you can count on Patient Choices Vermont to offer you clarity, compassion and trusted guidance.

For more than twenty years, Patient Choices Vermont has been the steady voice ensuring that Vermonters have the information, support, and freedom to make fully informed decisions about their end-of-life care.

Years of work, organization and advocacy by PCV led to the passage of Act 39 in 2013. This law opened the door for Vermonters to thoughtfully consider medical aid in dying—always with dignity, always with choice. Since then, we have helped defend and expand this right. We successfully lobbied for legislation providing crucial improvements to the function of Act 39 and opening it to people from other states. We have provided tens of thousands of people with comprehensive answers and heartfelt guidance during a deeply vulnerable time of life.

Today, the needs are growing.
Families are reaching out to us in ever-increasing numbers. Health professionals come to us asking for training. We receive requests from all over the state for help informing local communities about medical aid in dying. With your support, we are expanding our educational programs so that no one must make important end-of-life decisions in the dark.

People are hungry for information and support.
Your donations enable our knowledgeable and compassionate staff and volunteers to meet with Vermonters across the state: in public libraries, churches, senior centers and adult learning programs. We sit down with people in their hometowns to provide information, answer questions and facilitate conversations. ​

Thank you for your support of this vital work.

Ask yourself what end-of-life choice means to you. 
Please consider a donation of $60 or, if you are able, $200, $500, or $1,000. 

Click to Contribute

You can also donate by mail:
​
​Patient Choices Vermont
PO Box 671
Shelburne, VT 05482

​PCV is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your contributions are tax-deductible.

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We recently received this note from a librarian who is organizing a session in her town:

“One of the hardest things I’ve done at the library was sign end-of-life paperwork for a patron with Parkinson’s who had moved to Vermont for the right to choose death. She and her partner knew few people, but they knew us, so we helped. I still see her name in the catalog sometimes. Supporting choice in death is essential, and I know this library program will honor her.”

Patient Choices Vermont is the only organization in the state 
providing this critical information and guidance, 
​all free of charge.

Last year, you enthusiastically met our challenge to help increase PCV’s annual budget so that we could hire a full-time Executive Director and sustain our long-term commitment to our communities. Thank You! Across the board, people are grateful for our increasingly robust programs. PCV receives no federal or state funding; we rely solely on donations from people like you.

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Introducing: EXIT MATTERS: Facing the End with Humor and Heart:

Now you don’t have to wait for a PCV session to come to your town. Every month, we host this new, free online program bringing you an overview of medical aid in dying, guest speakers on a fascinating array of topics and a chance to ask questions. ​

Click for our complete Calendar of Events and Workshops

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Supporting Doctors and Healthcare Professionals:

Your healthcare team can rely on our staff and PCV’s volunteer Medical Advisory Team for the support they need to provide you with complete information and work through the many nuanced questions that often arise. We meet healthcare professionals online as well as where they are – at conferences, in small groups and one-on-one to support them in serving their patients with compassionate and comprehensive end-of-life care. Here is what Rachel, a Vermont doctor, recently shared with us:

“Patient Choices Vermont is invaluable in helping educate patients, families, and doctors like myself in helping patients with a life-limiting illness take control of the ends of their lives. Their website is a wealth of information and they do a phenomenal job of ensuring all of us have the support we need. I can't imagine doing this work without the support of Patient Choices Vermont.”

Compassionate, Personalized Support:  

Our Helpline volunteers and affiliated Wayfinders provide individualized education and support to approximately 1,000 people each year. People from across the country reach out to us every day, seeking help at a very difficult time in their lives. Our volunteers quickly respond to these requests, giving concrete and compassionate answers to their questions. Our website provides accurate and thorough information to tens of thousands of individuals, including patients, families and providers.

We would like to pass along the deep gratitude that people express for our work and personal assistance. Thank you for your ongoing support. We’re honored to have your trust and support.