A young woman who moved to Oregon to take advantage of the state’s assisted-suicide law took lethal drugs prescribed by a doctor and has died, a spokesman has said.
Brittany Maynard, 29, was diagnosed with brain cancer on New Year’s Day and was later given six months to live. She and her husband, Dan Diaz, moved from California because that state does not allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with lethal drugs prescribed by a doctor.
Maynard became a nationally recognised advocate for the group Compassion & Choices, which seeks to expand aid-in-dying laws beyond a handful of states.
Sean Crowley, a spokesman for Compassion & Choices, said on Monday in a statement that Maynard died on Saturday as she intended peacefully in her bedroom, in the arms of her loved ones.
Crowley said Maynard “suffered increasingly frequent and longer seizures, severe head and neck pain, and stroke-like symptoms. As symptoms grew more severe she chose to abbreviate the dying process by taking the aid-in-dying medication she had received months ago.”
Maynard’s story, accompanied by photos from her pre-illness wedding day, got attention across the globe while igniting a debate about doctor-assisted suicide.