Terminally ill Ohioans need access to Medical Aid in Dying (MAID). Please sponsor a bill.
David Hollister shared his poignant plea for a MAID law in the Columbus Dispatch Opinion piece below. He died with ALS just a day after his column was published. Ohioans responded in support of Mr. Hollister's plea with Letters to the Editor in the Dispatch. Here are quotes from some of them. More can be found on the Ohio End of Life Options website: OhioOptions.org.
"Because of my faith and my relationship with the Lord, I don’t believe I would choose medical aid in dying. However, I do believe David Hollister and anyone in his situation should have MAID as an option. I feel the Ohio legislature should enact the provisions Hollister proposed."
Madeline Crosby, Columbus, September 20, 2025
"I plead to Ohio lawmakers to pass MAID (medical aid in dying) legislation."
Amy Dommett, Beavercreek, September 22, 2025
"I urge Ohioans to support the legalization of MAID in our state."
William Lonneman, Cincinnati, September 14, 2025
"I was struck deeply by David Hollister’s Sept. 2 column in the Dispatch. How could anyone not be?"
Julia Speakman, Lancaster, September 12, 2025
Please sponsor a Medical Aid in Dying bill as an option for Ohio's terminally ill. Contact Executive Director, Lisa Vigil Schattinger, MSN, RN Ohio End of Life Options for more information and for a draft bill. Her email address is LisaVS@OhioOptions.org.
Thank you.
My life is ending. Other Ohioans deserve Medical Aid in Dying | OPINION
by David Hollister, Guest columnist
The Columbus Dispatch
September 2, 2025
David Hollister is a commercial real estate broker who lives in Chagrin Falls and supports Ohio End of Life Options.
As someone with advancing ALS, I reached an important personal decision upon my diagnosis: I wished to die peacefully on my terms.
It was a decision arrived at with the support of my wife. She didn’t want to see me suffer extended consequences of this cruel and always-fatal disease any more than I want to experience them.
Now, I am in hospice, and before I die, I write to make my case to Ohio lawmakers to change the law so other Ohioans may one day have the freedom I have been denied.
This is far from how I wanted to spend my final days.
Because Ohio does not have a law authorizing medical aid in dying — which allows a terminally ill patient to request from their doctor a prescription that will cause them to die peacefully — It was my intent that when I reached the point of having less than six months to live, I would go to Vermont, which has a MAID law that does not require patients to live in the state to access it.
Unfortunately for me, Vermont’s law requires in-person administrative actions and my disease is now such that I can’t tolerate a short car ride, let alone more than one trip to Vermont.
I lived the best life I could with a fatal disease.
To anyone who might wonder about my choice, I want to stress a few things: I have had excellent medical care. Read Mr. Hollister's column: https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2025/09/02/medical-aid-in-dying-david-hollister-assisted-suicide-ohio/85931144007/
