Strict requirements in California’s End of Life Act dictate who can access doctor-prescribed aid-in-dying medication, and who is left out.

Last month, California released its annual report on terminally ill Californians who took aid-in-dying drugs to end their lives. All told, 884 people died in California by using end-of-life medication prescribed by their doctors.

I knew one of them.

My partner’s mother, Linda, chose to end her own life in this manner last year after learning her colon cancer was terminal. In the weeks before her death, she got her affairs in order and said goodbye to her friends. After ingesting the medication at home, she died peacefully, surrounded by people who loved her. It was, as I wrote in a column, the perfect death.

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In the days after my column ran, I received dozens of emails from people who’d helped loved ones navigate that process, but also from those whose partners and family members had not been able to pursue this option due to its tight legal guidelines. One man shared the story of his father, who had a paralytic condition that prevented him from swallowing. As the medication is liquid, and the law dictates that someone must consume it without assistance, his doctor refused to prescribe it.

In reading these emails, the same question arose time and again: Why do some people get the privilege of dying compassionately and on their own terms, while others don’t?

The 2023 numbers paint an interesting picture of who gets to take advantage of the law: The vast majority, 76%, were ages 60 to 90. More than half of them had cancer, and 94% were receiving........

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