A young San Francisco woman with terminal brain cancer, who says she plans to end her life on Nov. 1, says she believes the ability to die with dignity should be a right for everyone.
Brittany Maynard, 29, diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer, has been traveling around the country with family and friends, to cherish her last moments. She says she will take a high-dosage prescription pill on that chosen date. Her husband, mother and friends will be by her side when she does.
To that end she has moved to Oregon, where she can be given the pill under the state's Death with Dignity Act.
"There is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or wants to die," Maynard told People magazine. "I want to live. I wish there was a cure for my disease, but there's not. My glioblastoma is going to kill me, and that's out of my control."
"I've discussed with many experts how I would die from it, and it's a terrible, terrible way to die. Being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying."
Maynard has released a YouTube video where she explains her decision to end her life and her move to Oregon to facilitate that.
"I can't even tell you the amount of relief it provides me to know that I don't have to die the way it's been described to me, that my brain tumor will take me on its own," Maynard says in the video, which includes interviews with her mother, Debbie Ziegler, and husband, Dan Diaz.
In the video, Diaz speaks of supporting his wife's decision.
"Between suffering or being allowed to decide when enough is enough, it just to me provides a lot of relief and comfort that, OK, that option is there, if and when we decide, or she decides, it's time," Diaz said.
Stage 4 glioblastoma is a notoriously aggressive and lethal brain tumor, with the majority of those diagnosed with it dying within 2 years. Only around 30 percent of patients live past two years, experts say.
Maynard says in April she was given just 6 months to live by doctors at the University of California, San Francisco.
Oregon has had its Death with Dignity Act since 1997, and 1,173 people have asked for and received prescriptions, with 752 people choosing to use them to end their lives. Oregon is just one of five states, along with Washington, New Mexico, Montana and Vermont, that have passed laws allowing help for terminally ill patients who choose to die.
