Personal story

VSED Stories: A good death for a Minnesota woman who championed VSED

Cheryl Hauser’s VSED story is similar to that of many others. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in her early 70s, she decided early on that she did not wish to live to the end stages of the disease. Her brother had suffered from the same form of dementia, so she knew from first-hand experience the depth of […]

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VSED Stories: Notes From a Caregiver

In “The Struggle: Notes From a Caregiver,” published in January on NextAvenue.org, David McNally discusses the emotional roller coaster that accompanies caregiving for his wife Cheryl, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Cheryl watched her brother succumb to Alzheimer’s, and has decided to use VSED to hasten her death sometime this year, with David’s support. Right

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VRNW Member Responds to Seattle Times Article about WA’s Death with Dignity/MAID Law

Recently, retired newspaper photographer Peter Haley penned an editorial in the Seattle Times: “State’s ‘Death with Dignity’ law failed my wife.” In his piece, Haley wrote that Toni, his “beloved wife of 27 years,” was forced to die alone because Washington state’s medical aid-in-dying (MAID) law doesn’t cover ALS. Toni chose to die on her

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Poem by Kate Vredvoogd

The following poem was written by Kate Vredvoogd while being present with and sitting at the bedside of her beloved father, Bruce Vredvoogd, during his 11 day VSED process. Kate is a writer, photographer and teacher of the English language. Her website is www.wanderlustwords.com. My dad is the trickster, the quiet careful listenerwho hears the

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Who We Are: Nancy Simmers

RN, Death Doula, and Co-Founder & Coordinator of VSED Resources Northwest Years ago, as a returning Peace Corps Volunteer, I applied to nursing school envisioning my life calling as a midwife. A self-proclaimed feminist, I was sure that women’s roles would drastically change during my lifetime, but that pregnancy and childbearing and reproductive choices would

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