Stakeholder #1

Because of the controversial nature of death with a physician's assistance, the next three blog posts will be about the stakeholders in the controversy. These analyses of the stakeholders will help to clear up the different sides of the story as well as to clear any confusion as to what the actual controversy is about.

Brittany Maynard

Who?

Brittany Maynard was a beautiful young woman who was 29 years old when she died. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and a cheerful smile. When she speaks, she is passionate and emotional. Her voice breaks when she talks about her future in a video found on CNN's website. She represents all of the people that know the rest of their lives will consist of nothing but suffering. She was an advocate for organizations that educated people about physician-assisted death and are fighting so that everyone can have the same  opportunity that Brittany had. Unless one is dying themselves, it is hard to know what these people are going through, but Brittany did her best to share her story by making herself a large media presence. Brittany sacrificed her right to a quiet death when she decided to take her struggle to the public in order to help other people to have the same choice that she had involving her death. It is because of Brittany's passion that California now has a law that allows physician-assisted death.

What are her claims?

• "I did not want this nightmare scenario for my family, so I started researching death with dignity. It is an end-of-life option for mentally competent, terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live. It would enable me to use the medical practice of aid in dying: I could request and receive a prescription from a physician for medication that I could self-ingest to end my dying process if it becomes unbearable. I quickly decided that death with dignity was the best option for me and my family."

To read the full story click here.

• "I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity. My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don't deserve this choice? That I deserve to suffer for weeks or months in tremendous amounts of physical and emotional pain? Why should anyone have the right to make that choice for me?"

To read the full story click here. 

• "I'm dying, but I'm choosing to suffer less. To put myself put myself through less physical and emotional pain, and my family as well."

To read the full story, click here. 

Why should we believe her?

I would say that Brittany's claims are valid, as she has been through the process one has to when one's life is at stake. Brittany had thought through every option, according to her own testimony. The idea of choosing when to die was not her first solution to her problem. The only facts that Brittany ever really mentions are the facts about her own story. She plays to our emotional side a lot, especially in her videos. I believe though that she's doing it for the right reason, however, which makes her credible, as she's not doing it for attention, but rather for the opportunity to give others the opportunity that she had to end her suffering.

Brittany in relation to others:

Brittany is the opposition to the stakeholder that is the traditional Catholic side. They believe that she was unjust in making this choice for herself. She is also the exact opposite of Maggie Karner, who is in the same situation as her, but still believes that one should not be able to choose the time of their death due to religious reasons. On her side are the doctors and medical professionals who believe that a patient has the right to choose.

ChristianMan16. "Gold Cross" 06/24/2007 via Wikimedia Comons. Public Domain license.