29-Year-Old Woman Moves To Oregon for Legal Aid in Dying

Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman diagnosed with a malignant
brain tumor that doctors predict will end her life within six
months, has produced a video in conjunction with aid-in-dying
advocacy organization Compassion and Choices
meant to explain her decision to end her life with the aid of
prescribed medication.

The video is powerful personal testimony in favor of a procedure
only legally available in five states. Under Oregon’s law, a
physician may prescribe life-ending barbituates to a terminally ill
patient who is of a sound mind to make such a decision.

Maynard moved out of California to exercise this control over
her own death. She explains the decision to
People magazine and offers some pointed criticism of
state lawmakers who would interfere in such personal choices:

“Right now it’s a choice that’s only available to some
Americans, which is really unethical,” she says.

“The amount of sacrifice and change my family had to go through
in order to get me to legal access to death with dignity – changing
our residency, establishing a team of doctors, having a place to
live – was profound,” she says.

“There’s tons of Americans who don’t have time or the ability or
finances,” she says, “and I don’t think that’s right or fair.”

…

“I believe this choice is ethical, and what makes it ethical is
it is a choice,” she says. “The patient can change their mind right
up to the last minute. I feel very protected here in Oregon.”

Reason TV produced a video in May 2013 featuring doctors in
Oregon and Montana who’ve prescribed life-ending medication, as
well as a 91-year-old retired California doctor who vows to “die
with dignity” whether the state likes it or not.