‘Death with dignity’ advocate dies

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore.

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 said Sunday.

Brittany Maynard, 29, was diagnosed with brain cancer 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 recognized 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 in a statement late Sunday that Maynard died 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.”

She told reporters she planned to take her life Saturday, less than three weeks before her 30th birthday. She said she wasn’t suicidal but wanted to die on her own terms.

She said her husband and other relatives accepted her choice.