Woman at center of assisted-suicide debate takes her own life Saturday
Published 9:21 am Monday, November 3, 2014
PORTLAND, Ore. — Brittany Maynard stuck by her decision.
The woman with brain cancer who revived a national debate about physician-assisted suicide ended her life Saturday by swallowing lethal drugs made available under an Oregon law allowing terminally ill people to choose when to die. She would have been 30 on Nov. 19.
Maynard had been in the spotlight for about a month since publicizing that she and her husband, Dan Diaz, moved to Portland from Northern California so that she could take advantage of the Oregon law. She told journalists she planned to die Nov. 1, shortly after her husband’s birthday, but reserved the right to move the date forward or push it back.
Maynard ended her suffering right on schedule after hinting at a possible delay in a video released last week.
“She died as she intended — peacefully in her bedroom, in the arms of her loved ones,” said Sean Crowley, a spokesman for the advocacy group Compassion & Choices.