…the worst pain and suffering at the end of life.” The widower of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old California woman who became the best-known advocate for the right to die, has spoken publicly in support of the legislation. Maynard, who had an aggressive brain tumor, moved to Oregon in 2014 in order to use that state’s aid-in-dying law. She died that year after using a lethal prescription. “The dying process is what Brittany feared,” said her husba…
…sion and Choices video gone viral. The video depicts the tragic illness of Brittany Maynard, who says she plans to end her life using Oregon’s assisted suicide law and to use her case to urge passage of similar laws nationwide. “Dr. Byock is right to decry our health care system for its scandalous deficiencies in meeting the needs of seriously ill and dying people. He’s also right to warn against bringing the physicians we all depend on into the r…
…ing 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…
…agnosed with aggressive brain cancer in 2008, the same kind of cancer that Brittany Maynard had. One has to believe that Senator Kennedy would have availed himself of the very best medical care money could buy. His widow Victoria described his story in a powerful op-ed, writing: When my husband was first diagnosed with cancer, he was told that he had only two to four months to live, that he’d never go back to the U.S. Senate, that he should get…
…dose? I understand that the media has been flooded with images of Brittany Maynard, who held the lethal drugs in her hand, and appeared to be in full control with a loving family supporting her choice to die in the bedroom we saw on TV that she shared with her husband. But most people who have been reported to use assisted suicide in Oregon do not resemble Ms. Maynard. Most are age 65-84, in a society where one in ten elders are abused according t…
