In states like Colorado, aid-in-dying is legal — but the medicine is often out of reach, especially for patients of religiously affiliated hospitals

The call came the last week of September, when Neil Mahoney could still stagger from his bed to the porch of his mobile home to let out his boisterous yellow Lab, Ryder.

Rodney Diffendaffer, a clinical pharmacist in Longmont, 45 miles away, had left a message.