29 Year Old Brittany Maynard Has Decided to Take Her Own Life on November 1st.
Brittany Maynard with her Great Dane, Charlie
From People Magazine:
For the past 29 years, Brittany Maynard has lived a fearless life – running half marathons, traveling through Southeast Asia for a year and even climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
So, it’s no surprise she is facing her death the same way.
On Monday, Maynard will launch an online video campaign with the nonprofitCompassion & Choices, an end-of-life choice advocacy organization, to fight for expanding death-with-dignity laws nationwide.
And on Nov. 1, Maynard, who in April was given six months to live, intends to end her own life with medication prescribed to her by her doctor – and she wants to make it clear it is NOT suicide.
“There is not a cell in my body that is suicidal or that wants to die,” she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “I want to live. I wish there was a cure for my disease but there’s not.”
Maynard has a stage 4 glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor.
“My glioblastoma is going to kill me, and that’s out of my control,” she says. “I’ve discussed with many experts how I would die from it, and it’s a terrible, terrible way to die. Being able to choose to go with dignity is less terrifying.”
The campaign’s six-minute video includes interviews with Brittany as well as her mother, Debbie Ziegler, and husband, Dan Diaz, 42.
“My entire family has gone through a cycle of devastation,” she says. “I’m an only child – this is going to make tears come to my eyes. For my mother, it’s really difficult, and for my husband as well, but they’ve all supported me because they’ve stood in hospital rooms and heard what would happen to me.”
Maynard was a newlywed when she started having debilitating headaches last January. That’s when she learned she had brain cancer.
“My husband and I were actively trying for a family, which is heartbreaking for us,” she says in the video.
Three months later, after undergoing surgery, she found out the tumor had grown even larger and was told she had, at best, six months to live.
After researching all her options after her diagnosis, Maynard, who was living in San Francisco at the time, decided aid in dying was her best option.
Her entire family moved with her to Portland earlier this year so she could have access to Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, which has been in place since late 1997. Since then, 1,173 people have had prescriptions written under the act, and 752 have used them to die.
To read the rest of the article click HERE.
Below is the video where Maynard talks about her decision.
