By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Brittany Maynard, a terminally ill cancer patient, whose story went viral on YouTube, ended her life on Saturday 1 November 2014. The 29-year-old was diagnosed with stage IV glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of terminal brain cancer.

Maynard graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and also earned a Masters degree in Education from University of California, Irvine. Maynard and her husband moved from California to Oregon, where assisted-suicide has been legal since 1997. Oregon’s death with Dignity Act allows terminally ill residents to obtain lethal prescriptions from doctors. Four other states, including Washington, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico, allow patients to seek help from their physicians in dying. Since 1997, nearly 1,173 individuals were given a lethal prescription and 752 patients chose to use the medications to end their own lives.

Maynard became a spokeswoman for the “death with dignity” movement, which advocates the proposition that terminally ill patients be able to receive a perception that will allow them to die on their own terms. She received the lethal medication several months ago, and chose to use it on Saturday when she felt “the time [was] right.” A post on her webpage states, “Brittany chose to make a well thought out and informed choice to ‘Die with Dignity’ in the face of such a terrible, painful, and incurable illness.”

Assisted suicide is highly controversial in the United States, and Maynard’s decision came under fire from Christian Campaign groups and others. The Roman Catholic Church opposes assisted suicide, believing that life starts at the moment of conception and should not end until the moment of natural death. A Vatican bioethics official condemned Maynard’s decision calling it an “absurdity.”

 

For more information, please see the following:

BBC – Right-To-Die Advocate Brittany Maynard Ends Life – 3 November 2014.

CNN – Brittany Maynard, Advocate for ‘Death With Dignity,’ Dies – 3 November 2014.

REUTERS – Vatican Official Condemns Maynard Assisted Suicide Case In U.S. – 4 November 2014.

USA TODAY – Brittany Maynard, Right-To-Die Advocate, Ends Her Life – 3 November 2014.