29-year old Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor, in April this year and doctors forecasted that she would only have six more months to live. If she does not die this October, Maynard said she wanted to die on Nov. 1.
Maynard also said that she wants to live and that she is not at all suicidal but her decision has stemmed from the assessment of her situation. Her disease does not have a cure and Maynard knows it is going to kill her. She said that she has conversed with experts on how she would die and concluded it would be a terrible death. She then decided she would go for what she describes as a more dignified way of dying.
"My glioblastoma is going to kill me, and that's out of my control," Maynard said. "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 plans to take her own life a few days after her husband's birthday on Oct. 30 but before she turns 30 on Nov. 19 and she plans to do this through Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, which has legalized physician-assisted suicide in the state.
Maynard and her husband moved from Northern California to Oregon because of this law, which allows adults diagnosed with a terminal illness and only have six months to live to voluntarily request in writing a prescription from the doctor for a lethal medication that would end his or her life. As of Dec. 31, 2013, over 750 people have taken advantage of this law in Oregon to die.
Instead of just waiting for her death though, Maynard decided to use her remaining days to advocate for Compassion & Choices, a group seeking to expand death-with-dignity laws to other states including California, Colorado, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Four other states in the U.S. namely Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington have already passed similar laws.
Maynard said that her loved ones have accepted her choice. Her husband, mother, stepfather and closest friends will be with her when she goes.
"I'm getting sicker, dealing with more pain and seizures and difficulties so I just selected (the date)," Maynard said. "I'm dying, but I'm choosing to suffer less, to put myself through less physical and emotional pain and my family as well."
