Clickhole is part of The Onion and parodies sites that post items that go viral. Today, Clickhole featured a “story” obviously inspired by the viral story of Brittany Maynard, who, along with a great deal of technical assistance from Compassion and Choices, shared her wish to kill herself using Oregon’s assisted suicide law. Part of her pitch was to demand that all 50 states in the USA legalize assisted suicide. Below is one of the photos from today’s story – and an excerpt. It’s Friday, we needed a laugh, and we were gifted with this:
Meet The Terminally Ill Woman Who Is Choosing To End Her Life With Dignity, At The Snapping Jaws Of 20 Hungry Wolves
Henrietta Green is brave. In fact, the only thing the 61-year-old from Yarmouth, ME fears is dying without dignity. That’s why, when doctors diagnosed her with leukemia two months ago, she made a decision: She would not die slowly and pathetically in a hospital bed. She would go out proudly, being torn apart and eaten by wolves.
Henrietta’s family supports her choice. Her son Charles is even helping her enact her plan.
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Right-to-die activists all over the country have released statements of support for Henrietta and others like her, including Alan Davis, 92, who passed away being peacefully drowned by a killer whale at Sea World, and Mark Jenkins, 87, who, surrounded by loved ones, pulled a gun on a group of police officers.
If you are sickeningly familiar with the repetetive format of articles using an individual to pitch a change in public policy. The only part of the Maynard story not included here is the “pretty white girl” aspect of the viral story. It’s a well-known phenomenon that stories about *any* tragedy get more attention if the victims are young, pretty and white – attention from the press and the public. Older, nonattractive (by white male-dominated standards) don’t get the kind of viral attention Maynard got and continues to get after her death.