Supporting Your Patients Who Choose VSED (2-hour webinar)

The Palliative Care Institute at Western Washington University is hosting a 2-hour webinar on VSED on May 13, 2021.  

Although a number of states, including Washington, have laws that allow patients who are close to dying to take medication to end their lives (MAID), that option is not always available. So some patients are choosing make the decision to hasten their death by not eating or drinking (VSED), usually when they feel that their body is starting to fail, and their quality of life is not acceptable to them anymore.

This 2-hour webinar will examine this process as an end-of-life choice, exploring moral, medical and legal issues that arise for patients, and their families and providers. Although this webinar is intended primarily for those in the medical field, they welcome community participation. 

Presenters include

• Hope Wechkin, MD, EvergreenHealth Palliative Care, Medical Director
• Megan Ellingson, MD, Palliative Care, Whatcom Hospice
• Sharmon FIgenshaw, ARNP, Hospice Nurse
• Jen VanderWeyden – family member whose mother chose VSED
• Erin Mae Glass, Elder Law Attorney, Baron Smith Law
• Nancy Simmers, RN, Death Doula, VSED Resources NW
• John Holmes, PhD,  Ethics Educator, PeaceHealth System

This webinar is co-sponsored by the Palliative Care Institute, The Northwest Washington Medical Society, VSED Resources NW and A Sacred Passing.