Brittany Maynard Continues To Advocate After Death

Brittany Maynard left behind a video to continue the momentum of her death-with-dignity movement after she was gone. She died by her own choice on November 1st from a combination of lethal drugs that ...
Brittany Maynard Continues To Advocate After Death
Written by Lacy Langley
  • Brittany Maynard left behind a video to continue the momentum of her death-with-dignity movement after she was gone.

    She died by her own choice on November 1st from a combination of lethal drugs that were legally prescribed for her in Oregon.

    Brittany Maynard became a spokesperson for death-with-dignity when she announced that she would end her own life. She made the decision after she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer that left her with intolerable headaches, seizures, and memory loss.

    In the new video, released on what would have been her birthday, she says, “I hope for the sake of other American citizens … that I’m speaking to that I’ve never met, that I’ll never meet, that this choice be extended to you.”

    Maynard added, “That we mobilize, that we vocalize, that we start to talk about it. I decided to share my story … because I felt like this issue of death with dignity is misunderstood by many people in our community and culture.”

    The video was shot on August 2nd. Brittany Maynard decided to end her life before she could see her 30th birthday. She admitted that it would just be too sad for her.

    “The idea of celebrating my 30th birthday is quite difficult because my life was moving forward in such a great way,” she told People, “and to get this diagnosis turns your whole life upside down.”

    Brittany Maynard asked her husband and her mother to continue her advocacy for death-with-dignity organizations and to continue to lobby for the rights of terminal patients to choose death on their own terms.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1UhPChuYqY

    “She said if I was so inclined that she would like to see the work on getting death with dignity passed in all 50 states go on,” Debbie Ziegler said last month.

    “She would like to see that not stop, not be a 15-minute thing,” she continued. “We want to let people know that this is not as frightening as anyone makes it out to be. It’s really one choice of many. We all have many, many choices on how we handle our last days when we learn we are very ill, and everyone’s choice should be honored.”

    It sounds like Brittany Maynard’s legacy will not slow down any time soon, even though she is gone. What do you think of the death-with-dignity movement?

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