On Nov. 1, 2014, in Oregon, Brittany Maynard ended her life, surrounded by family and friends. The 29-year-old was terminally ill with a brain tumor and had moved from California to Oregon to take advantage of Oregon's Death with Dignity Law.
Now, Maynard's family is putting their support behind a bill in the California state house to create an aid-in dying law in that state. Maynard's mother, Debbie Ziegler, asked lawmakers to honor her daughter by passing a bill that would allow people who are terminally ill to commit suicide using drugs.
Ziegler noted that most people cannot move to a state where aid in dying is legal "They couldn't leave their homes; they couldn't leave their jobs; they couldn't leave their families, their friends, their pets. We had to do all of that. It added another layer of pain."
Assisted suicide-also called right to die or aid in dying-is legal in five states. Oregon, Washington, and Vermont have laws that allow a terminally ill adult to acquire prescriptions for lethal doses of medications from their physicians. These states have protocols in place for this practice. A New Mexico judge ruled that a terminally ill person has a constitutional right to obtain aid in dying. However, the New Mexico attorney general is appealing this ruling. In Montana, a court case has established that doctors are protected if they write a prescription for a lethal medication or dosage at the request of someone who is terminally ill.
Aid-in-dying laws have been introduced in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C., and are being considered in New York and Colorado. Such laws have been proposed in many states over the years, but have had strong opposition. Prescribing lethal medication could be considered a breach of a doctor's oath to do no harm. Advocates for persons with disabilities fear that sick patients would be pressured to end their lives to avoid becoming a financial burden. The Roman Catholic Church is a strong opponent to right-to-die or assisted suicide laws.
Maynard was diagnosed with brain cancer in early 2014 and underwent surgery. The cancer recurred later that year and she was given 6 months to live. She became the face of the right-to-die movement when she talked about her decision to end her life in videos online. She also founded the Brittany Maynard Fund, which seeks to legalize aid-in-dying laws in states where it is now illegal.