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“I do not want to die. But I am dying. And I want to die on my own terms.’’
With words like these, published in a recent editorial, 29-year-old UC Berkeley psychology graduate Brittany Maynard has become the most visible face in the intensely emotional debate over assisted death.
Diagnosed with terminal brain cancer earlier this year, Maynard is going public about her decision to, as she puts it, “go with dignity.” She has uprooted her life in the Bay Area and moved to Oregon so that when her symptoms grow intolerable, she can legally swallow a lethal dose of medication.
Other terminally ill patients have told their stories, but Maynard’s, perhaps because she is so young and so uncommonly honest, has been shared millions of times around the world.
