Title: 'Goodbye World. Spread Good Energy': Terminal Cancer Patient, Brittany Maynard, 29, exercises her right-to-die and takes her own life surrounded by her family Source:
[None] URL Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... e-brain-cancer-takes-life.html Published:Nov 2, 2014 Author:WILLS ROBINSON Post Date:2014-11-02 22:05:10 by out damned spot Keywords:cancer, Brittany, patient Views:1608 Comments:4
*Brittany Maynard, 29, had previously planned to legally end her life on November 1 - before she loses her battle with terminal brain cancer
*She died in her Portland, Oregon home on Sunday surrounded by family
*Chose to die before she lost her ability to function
*Maynard wrote on Facebook: 'Goodbye to all my dear friends'
*Added that she had 'a ring of support' around her as she typed
*Was diagnosed in April and doctors gave her just six months to live
*She then made headlines around the world announcing she wanted to die
*Last week she completed her bucket list by visiting the Grand Canyon
A 29-year-old terminal cancer sufferer who had previously spoken of her right to die has ended her own life surrounded by her family. According to friends and family of Brittany Maynard, she passed away in her Portland, Oregon, home after her condition worsened and the tumor took over. However she was able to choose to die before she lost her ability to function. She completed her bucket list last week when she visited the Grand Canyon.
People.com said she wrote on Facebook : 'Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love.
'Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness, this terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me … but would have taken so much more.'
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She added: 'The world is a beautiful place, travel has been my greatest teacher, my close friends and folks are the greatest givers. I even have a ring of support around my bed as I type.
'Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!'
Maynard was diagnosed with stage IV glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of terminal brain cancer and in April doctors gave her just six months to live.
She then made headlines around the world after announcing she intended to die under Oregon's Death with Dignity Act.
‘But it will come, because I feel myself getting sicker. It's happening each week.’
The newlywed recently managed to tick visiting the Grand Canyon off her bucket list after previously announcing that it was one place she hoped to visit before she died.
Last week she had revealed on her website that she had managed to travel from her home in Oregon to Arizona with her husband, mother and stepfather 'thanks to the kindness of Americans around the country who came forward to make my "bucket list" dream come true'.
In her latest statement, a video produced by end-of-life choice advocacy group Compassion & Choices, she acknowledges that some people have been skeptical about her story.
'When people criticize me for not waiting longer, or, you know, whatever they've decided is best for me, it hurts,' she said, 'because really, I risk it every day, every day that I wake up.'
Maynard also revealed that her health has been deteriorating and described a recent 'terrifying' day when she had two seizures and found herself unable to say her husband's name.
'I think sometimes people look at me and they think. "Well you don't look as sick as you say you are," which hurts to hear, because when I'm having a seizure and I can't speak afterwards, I certainly feel as sick as I am,' she said.
Maynard had previously said that she planned to take the medication she'd been prescribed on November 1 because she wanted to celebrate her husband's birthday on October 30.
'The worst thing that could happen to me is that I wait too long because I'm trying to seize each day,' she said, 'but I somehow have my autonomy taken away from me by my disease because of the nature of my cancer.'
After her recent visit to the Grand Canyon, Maynard had written on her website in glowing terms about the experience.
'The Canyon was breathtakingly beautiful, and I was able to enjoy my time with the two things I love most: my family and nature,' she wrote.
Images taken at the Canyon show her kissing her husband, Dan, and embracing her mother and stepfather, grins across their faces.
How her actions relate to what hospice care providers use for the last week or two and days of a terminally ill cancer patient, I don't know.
With hospice it is a more gradual inducing of morphine as the pain gets worse, but never a lethal dose. Eventually the patient goes in a coma and does not recover. So the question is where is the 'red line' between outright assisted suicide and the hospice method? Don't know.
