William H. "Bill" Colby (Kansas City, MO) is the lawyer who represented the family of Nancy Cruzan in their right-to- die case, the first such case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, on December 6, 1989. He worked with Senator John Danforth's office on legislation which eventually became Federal law, the Patient Self-Determination Act, and has testified before different state legislatures and legislative committees about law and ethics at the end of life. He has also represented many families who have been faced with agonizing questions about removal of life support from a loved one.

Bill has appeared on Good Morning America, Today, CBS This Morning, Frontline, Media & Society with Fred Friendly, the MacNeil Lehrer Report and other national programs. He has presented at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting, DRI, ASLME, ASPEN and other national legal and medical conferences, and has spoken to groups across the country on the issues we face at the end of life.

Bill graduated from Knox College in 1977 with an English degree and an emphasis in creative writing, and from the University of Kansas Law School in 1982. After law school he clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and practiced law in D.C. at the Wall Street firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell. In 1985 he returned to Kansas City and the firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon. He is a Senior Fellow with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in Washington, D.C., and the author of Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan. Bill has taught at the University of Kansas School of Law. He lives in Kansas with his wife, four children, and their dog, Spot.