Posted on 11/02/2014 8:44:33 PM PST by Morgana
Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman diagnosed with incurable brain cancer, committed assisted suicide at her home in Portland, Oregon on Saturday evening by swallowing a fatal dose of barbiturates.
She had previously acquired the drugs legally by prescription under Oregon's controversial assisted suicide law.
"Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love," she wrote on Facebook. "The world is a beautiful place, travel has been my greatest teacher, my close friends and folks are the greatest givers. I even have a ring of support around my bed as I type … Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!"
Maynard rocketed into international headlines early in October when she released a video, in conjunction with the assisted suicide advocacy organization, Compassion and Choices, announcing her intention to end her own life under Oregon’s assisted suicide law on Nov. 1 – two days after her husband’s birthday. That video has since been viewed over 9 million times.
But opponents of assisted suicide took heart earlier this week when Brittany released another video, which had been shot about two weeks previous, suggesting that she might not go through with the suicide – at least not on the date specified.
"It doesn’t seem like the right time,” she said in that video, suggesting that her health was holding out, and she was still enjoying her life too much to end it.
“I still feel good enough, and I still have enough joy, and I still laugh and smile with my family and friends enough that it doesn’t seem like the right time right now,” Brittany had said. “But it will come, because I feel myself getting sicker. It’s happening each week.”
In the second video, Brittany had also revealed that her goal in publicizing her case was to enact “positive change” by passing right-to-die laws nationwide.
However, relatives told NBCNews that Brittany was "devastated" that some media outlets took her second video as a sign that she had changed her views on assisted suicide.
In a statement following Brittany's death, Compassion and Choices (formerly The Hemlock Society), said that Brittany had made "a well thought out and informed choice to Die With Dignity in the face of such a terrible, painful, and incurable illness."
Opponents of assisted suicide mourned Brittany's death, and criticized the manner in which her illness and death were used, via a well-coordinated media campaign, to promote the agenda of the euthanasia and assisted suicide lobby.
“We are saddened by the fact that this young woman gave up hope, and now our concern is for other people with terminal illnesses who may contemplate following her example," said Janet Morana, the Executive Director of Priests for Life, in a statement. "Our prayer is that these people will find the courage to live every day to the fullest until God calls them home. Brittany’s death was not a victory for a political cause. It was a tragedy, hastened by despair and aided by the culture of death invading our country.”
Brittany was diagnosed with a brain tumor in January and given 10 years to live after years of debilitating headaches. Months later, however, she found out that the brain cancer had progressed much more rapidly than doctors anticipated, and that she likely only had about six months.
She and her husband soon thereafter moved to Oregon to take advantage of the state's assisted suicide law.
Since the state legalized assisted suicide by enacting the Death with Dignity Act – on October 27, 1997 – the number of assisted suicides has steadily increased from 16 in 1998 to 85 in 2012.
Developing...
“We may never know her fate.”
We’ll learn what happened to her at the Final Judgment.
Be a vegetable in your own home and die sooner of natural causes rather than later.
I doubt that.
Yours is the only post that has been convincing that the girl did the right thing.
It’s for God to judge, not us. May she rest in peace.
The quote came from Time magazine when Trotsky was assassinated in 1940. They noted the irony that no one was present at his death to utter words comparable to those he had spoken at Lenin’s bedside.
I was shocked at the tragic suddenness of this young woman’s death & it was all I could think to say.
She died but why is this such news? Many die the same way every day. I hope she took the time to prepare her soul as she did preparing the news media. Eternity is a very long time. I read not one word of her expectations the moment after her departure.
Besides telling me to take care of my mom, he also begged me on two occasions to go get his gun so he could end the pain and suffering. I came close but I could not do it. However, I would not blame him if he did it on his own. I also do not blame this woman.
I watched a dear friend die a slow agonizing death from a brain tumor, another from multiple cancers, and my father die a slow agonizing death from a degenerative disease. All were emotionally strong people and stuck it out to the end, but all wondered why the Lord didn’t take them sooner - except the one who was certain that the Lord would heal her up until the last day.
After seeing what they went through, and after suffering years of debilitating pain myself, I could never judge another who made the decision she made. I can’t believe God would judge harshly someone with a brain tumor who couldn’t think properly or a person in so much agony they could not bear it any more. God is compassionate. I pray that this woman found Him on her way out of this life.
Hugs to you...I’m so sorry to hear of your experience as well.
Damn cancer. Just damn it for all time.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
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