Washington Post Profiles NPR Host Diane Rehm And Her Right-To-Die Advocacy

Diane Rehm

The WASHINGTON POST has profiled NPR and AMERICAN UNIVERSITY News-Talk WAMU/WASHINGTON host DIANE REHM's leading role in the right-to-die movement in AMERICA.

REHM's husband JOHN, dying of Parkinson's disease last year, was rendered incapable of taking care of himself in his final days, and his doctor could not assist him in his desire to die because assisted suicide is illegal in MARYLAND. The only option available to him, which he took, was to not eat or drink. DIANE REHM has since become a nationally-prominent advocate of changing the laws to allow assisted suicide for terminal patients, working with COMPASSION AND CHOICES, a group run by BARBARA COOMBS LEE, who was instrumental in getting OREGON's assisted suicide law passed.

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT professor HOWARD BALL told the POST that REHM "brings gravitas, she brings her experience and she brings a level of reason and sanity to this discussion that is severely lacking when you look at the opponents of death with dignity.”  But palliative care physician and opponent of assisted suicide laws IRA BYOCK told the paper that while he gives her credit for allowing him to be on her show to present the opposing side, he thinks her presence in the debate "sucks all of the oxygen out of the room" and distracts from the debate.

Read REHM's story by clicking here.

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