Nantucket/New York City Civic Leader Joins Nation's Leading End-of-Life Choice Organization

NANTUCKET, Mass. and NEW YORK, Aug. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Samantha B. Sandler, a civic leader and conservationist who lives in Nantucket and New York City, has joined the board of directors of the nation's leading end-of-life choice organization, Compassion & Choices.

Sandler is a member of the New York City Center Education Committee, advisor and former board member of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, and has taught English as a second language at the Nantucket Atheneum. In addition, she has decades of experience as an active volunteer for numerous nonprofits focusing on community development, education and social welfare.

"As a trained social worker, Samantha is a change agent in society and in the lives of the individuals, families and communities she serves," said Compassion & Choices President Barbara Coombs Lee, an attorney who was an ER and ICU nurse for 25 years. "She will help us change the tragic way many people die in our country: alone in a hospital room, often in agonizing pain. Our mission is to ensure that most people die the way they want: peacefully, at home, in the arms of their loved ones."

"I passionately believe in the equality, worth and dignity of all people," said Sandler. "Every American should have equal access to death with dignity if their dying process becomes unbearable. Compassion & Choices has laid the foundation to make it happen nationwide. That's why I'm honored to join its board."

Death with dignity is expressly legal in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico. Compassion & Choices currently has campaigns to bring aid in dying to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Even in states without aid-in-dying laws, there are options to ensure that no one suffers needlessly at life's end. To learn more about these options, and what is available to you where you live, call Compassion & Choices' End-Of-Life Consultation program toll free at 1.800.247.7421.

Compassion & Choices is the nation's oldest and largest nonprofit organization working to improve care and expand choice at the end of life. Leading the end-of-life choice movement for more than 30 years, we support, educate and advocate. More information is available at: www.compassionandchoices.org. 

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Contact: Sean Crowley, 202-495-8520-c, [email protected] OR Marie Manis, 303-929-7110, [email protected]

SOURCE Compassion & Choices