Brittany Maynard Sparks Assisted Dying Debate

At age 29, Brittany Maynard died peacefully in her Portland home after suffering from terminal brain cancer.  Unlike so many other Americans who are faced with death, Brittany chose to abridge her dying process by taking the aid-in-dying medication, authorized under Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act. 

The case of Brittany Maynard may finally signal a shift in the debate on assisted dying.  “Whereas hastening an inevitable death was once regarded almost exclusively as a medical issue, we are beginning to focus on what patients want, on their right to self-determination.  And people are increasingly asking why anyone—the state, the medical profession, religious leaders—would presume to tell someone else that they must continue to die by inches, against their will.”

While the Supreme Court has twice maintained that assisted dying is a medical question that should be left to the states, the medical profession has been among the main obstacles in enacting more laws like Oregon’s.  The American Medical Association’s official policy is that physician assisted suicide is “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” 

Yet proponents of assisted dying say this stance puts the focus in the wrong place.  This is not about physicians or their self-image; it is about patients—specifically those where healing is no longer possible.  Patents have the right to hasten their deaths by refusing dialysis, ventilation, antibiotics, or any other life sustaining treatment.  Furthermore, there is not requirement in any state for physicians to participate if they do not wish to do so.  The laws provide one more choice for physicians and patients as they deal with terminal illness. 

Many patients say that merely having the prescription provides peace of mind and a sense of control. “Now that I’ve had the prescription filled and it’s in my possession, I have experienced a tremendous sense of relief,” Maynard wrote. 

See Marcia Angell, The Brittany Maynard Effect: How She is Changing the Debate on Assisted Dying, The Washington Post, Oct. 31, 2014.

Special thanks to Naomi Cahn (Harold H. Greene Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.