14 DAY TRIAL // This past Saturday, brain cancer sufferer and right-to-die advocate Brittany Maynard ended her life. She passed away in her home in the city of Portland in Oregon, US, after taking lethal medication that a doctor prescribed her.
“Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love. Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness.”
“The world is a beautiful place, travel has been my greatest teacher, my close friends and folks are the greatest givers... goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!” she wrote in her last message to friends and family.
Her death was announced by advocacy group Compassion & Choices the day after, on Sunday. 29-year-old Brittany Maynard is said to have passed away in her own bedroom, surrounded by her loved ones.
Brittany Maynard's story
29-year-old Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with brain cancer towards the beginning of the year. Specifically, the doctors who handled her case told her that she had a stage 4 malignant brain tumor, and that she only had about 6 months to live.
At first, the young woman attempted to fight the disease. However, after doctors failed to surgically remove the tumor and medication did nothing to help her, she decided not to undergo any further treatment and instead die with dignity.
Following her diagnosis and her decision not to pursue treatment and end her own life rather than simply sit around waiting for the cancer to kill her, Brittany Maynard and her husband moved from California to Oregon, advocacy group Compassion & Choices explains.
In Oregon, a doctor was able to prescribe her lethal medication under the state's Death with Dignity Act. By the looks of it, the 29-year-old held on to the drugs for quite a while before finally deciding to say goodbye to family and friends, and take them.
Looking to explain her decision to end her own life, 29-year-old Brittany Maynard released two videos documenting her struggle with terminal brain cancer. The videos, both of which are available below, went viral after her death.
“I still feel good enough, and I still have enough joy, and I still laugh and smile with my family and friends enough that it doesn't seem like the right time right now. But it will come, because I feel myself getting sicker,” the young woman explained when posting her past video this past October 29.
The right to die on your own terms
The reason Brittany Maynard's story made headlines was that, even in this day and age, a person's right to end their own life is still widely debated. Thus, in the US, just 5 states have until now passed legislation meant to legalize physician-assisted dying.
Brittany Maynard hopes that, by opening up and sharing her story with the world, more people diagnosed with terminal conditions would be given permission to say goodbye to the world on their own terms.
“My dream is that every terminally ill American has access to the choice to die on their own terms with dignity,” the 29-year-old explained in an interview. “I do not want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own terms,” she added.
