Death with Dignity: Brittany Maynard’s Story

After months of suffering from debilitating headaches, 29-year-old Brittany Maynard learned she had brain cancer. 

Brittany’s life evolved into one consisting of hospital stays, doctor consultations, and medical research.  Only nine days after her initial diagnoses, she had a partial craniotomy and partial resection of her temporal lobe in order to halt the growth of her tumor. 

Not long thereafter, Brittany learned that her tumor returned in a more aggressive form.  Doctors gave her a prognosis of six months to live.  After researching treatments and talking to family members, Brittany concluded that there was no treatment that would save her life. 

Although Brittany considered passing away in hospice care, she would have suffered for weeks or months.  Upon researching death with dignity, an end of life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six or less months to live, Brittany decided using medical practice to aid in dying was the best option for her and her family. 

Brittany and her family moved to Oregon, where death with dignity is legal.  After obtaining the medicine, Brittany states, “I have experienced a tremendous sense of relief . . . Having this choice at the end of my life has become incredibly important.  It has given me a sense of peace during a tumultuous time that otherwise would be dominated by fear, uncertainty, and pain.  Now I’m able to move forward in my remaining days or weeks I have on this beautiful Earth, to seek joy and love and to spend time traveling to outdoor wonders of nature with those I love.  And I know that I have a safety net.”

See Brittany Maynard, My Right to Death with Dignity at 29, CNN, Oct. 10, 2014.