The Big Event

Patients having the right to choose the time at which they die is a controversy that has been around and has been debated for many, many years. It hit massive popularity with Dr. Kevorkian in the late 1900s and has since been revisited in the 2010's after a massively popular case with a young woman who had terminal brain cancer and less than 6 months to live.

In spring of 2014, a young newlywed from the bay area in California, Brittany Maynard, complained of terrible migraines that couldn't be treated with classic painkillers. Several specialist visits later, and Maynard received the news that would change her life. In a sterile office, a doctor told Maynard of her condition: brain cancer. They could operate. And they did.

The cancer came back. This time it was inoperable. Brittany had two choices: live and lose her eyesight, her mental capabilities, and die a slow and painful death, prolonged by chemicals like radiation and cocktails of painkillers and medicines. She would lose her hair and most of her functioning by the time she died. Her other choice was to uproot her and her husband's life in order to move to a state where it was legal to choose the day she was going to die. She would, at this time, be able to die like she was living, in minimal pain and with all her brain functions intact. It was at this point that Maynard joined a group known as Compassion and Choices. She became an advocate for their mission: provide access and information about physician-assisted death to those who needed it.

Brittany and her husband moved to Portland, Oregon, where it was legal to choose the day of your death. Establishing residency in Oregon was not easy though. They had to find a new physician, one who would be on board with Brittany's decision to end her life. Her husband had to leave his job. They had to both get new drivers' licenses and start paying taxes in Oregon. Once they became residents, then it would be time for Brittany to get her toxic cocktail.

US Government. "Oregon" 09/06/2004 via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain license

In the months before her death, Brittany traveled with her friends and family. She had always wanted to go to Alaska, and so she did. She went and she experienced the natural beauty around her for the last time. In November of 2014 Brittany had a seizure. She decided that that would be the day that she died. She took the drug cocktail and died in her sleep, surrounded by her friends and family with her mental and physical health still mostly intact.

Throughout her decision-making processes, Brittany became somewhat popular with the media. There was a time where everyone knew who she was. Just over a year after her death, physician-assited death became legal in her home state of California. Hers was the death that brought this controversy back into the limelight.