Woman with cancer plans to take her life in Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A 29-year-old woman with brain cancer is using her last days to push for expanded right-to-die laws.
Brittany Maynard has moved from California to Portland to take advantage of the state’s Death with Dignity Act. Oregon is one of a handful of states in which terminally ill patients can end their lives with prescriptions of lethal medication.
Maynard says she’s not suicidal, but wants to die on her own terms. She plans to take the lethal dose Nov. 1.
More than 750 people in Oregon have died using the law since 1998. The state does not track how many of them are like Maynard and moved from another state.
Maynard said she learned she had cancer on New Year’s Day and was later given six months to live.
