“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”
-Isaac Asimov
Our Goals:
NCDDR, a not-for-profit organization, helps you make the transition between your life and death less troublesome. We do so by providing both tools and resources that can help you plan for the end of your life, including advocating for yourself and taking charge of your dying process.
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Our Services:
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NCDDR provides:
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Detailed instructions on patient rights
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Clear explanations for many end-of-life medical interventions, including their uses and risks
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A list of all the documents that should be completed in advance of any end-of-life medical interventions
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Guidance for communicating with family and medical professionals about end-of-life planning
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Links to a wide range of free resources
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Our Values:
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NCDD values patient education, autonomy, and freedom of choice. We also believe in the value of communication between all of those involved in an individual’s death and dying process. NCDD is committed to making a full range of information from a wide range of experts easily available to all. We also welcome input on the end-of-life process from people and professionals in any and all applicable fields.
Most importantly, NCDD does not advocate for or encourage any set method or one plan for the end-of-life process. We recognize the autonomy of each individual facing the end of their life. NCDD is committed to making sure that individuals understand their full range of options and all the available strategies that may enable them to best achieve their end-of-life goals. NCDD does not encourage anyone to end their life and is opposed to anyone encouraging people to end their life.
Who we are:
Janis Landis
Co-Director
Landis is deeply committed to the rights of individuals. After retiring from a career at a federal agency, she focused on making a significant impact on citizens’ death and dying rights—an area where public advocacy has made relatively little progress. Working with Final Exit Network, including as their former President, she used her expertise and communication skills to help individuals achieve their end-of-life goals. As co-founder of the National Center for Death and Dying Resources, Landis looks forward to providing both education and a full range of all the available information to a wider audience.
Lee Higgins
Board of Advisors
Daniel Lee Higgins, PhD & M.S. is a former HIV/AIDS counselor and public health researcher. Through the course of a career spanning 27 years, he shifted from emotionally supporting individuals who were living and dying with HIV, to the development, implementation, and evaluation of HIV prevention programs at the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. In 2013, Lee stepped away from his career in public health to provide care, emotional support, and advocacy for people and their families who are dealing with dementia. Lee lives in Atlanta with his wife and their pets.
Lily Chambers
Co-Director
Lily Chambers is a dedicated advocate for individuals’ personal autonomy. She has worked as a life-coach and community organizer, studied with an end-of-life doula association, and volunteered with a right-to-die nonprofit organization. She is certified by the International Coaching Federation. Chambers is focused on creating an environment where shame is not a factor in personal decision making. To that end, she co-founded the National Center for Death and Dying Resources as a means to better support individuals on their preferred end-of-life path.
Bob Wood
Board of Advisors
Robert Wood earned his M.D. at the University of Rochester, and also studied at the Dartmouth Medical Center and the University of Washington. During the AIDS epidemic, he became the Director of the HIV/AIDS Control Program of Public Health in Seattle and King County—a position he held until 2010. During his time as director, Wood worked to legalize MAID, or Medical Aid In Dying, in Washington State, which was eventually passed into law in 2008. Additionally, Wood has worked with the ACLU to transform our society’s approach to controlled substances, campaigning for the legalization of marijuana and to decrease legal penalties for substance abuse. A gay man living with HIV since 1985, Wood has lost numerous friends and patients to the epidemic and believes dying persons have the right to options for a better death.