By Dan Diaz
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My newlywed wife ended her life on her terms. Brittany Maynard advocated for aid-in-dying laws
By admin | October 27, 2018
Nearly four years ago, my newlywed, 29-year-old wife, Brittany Maynard, peacefully ended the unrelenting suffering caused by terminal brain cancer, the same kind that killed Sen. John McCain.
She took prescription aid-in-dying medication she obtained after we had to move from California to Oregon to utilize it’s Death with Dignity Act.
Brittany fully realized that most mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live who qualify for medical aid in dying do not have the ability, resources or time to pick up and move to one of the states that allow this end-of-life care option. That’s why she dedicated the last few weeks of her life to advocating for lawmakers to pass similar laws in states nationwide.
Today, I continue to fulfill my promise to Brittany to carry on her message, which has inspired California, Colorado, the District of Columbiaand Hawai’i to pass laws authorizing medical aid in dying since she died on Nov. 1, 2014.
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And thanks to previously passed laws in Oregon, Washington, Vermont and a Montana Supreme Court ruling in a lawsuit filed by Compassion & Choices, nearly 20 percent of Americans live in a jurisdiction where this end-of-life care option is available. But my mission is far from accomplished.
More than two dozen states have considered medical aid-in-dying bills since last year. They include New Jersey, where I have met with lawmakers repeatedly to urge them to pass the Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act and will do so again on Oct. 29.
I also will speak at a Day of the Dead celebration on Nov. 1 in New York City to honor my fellow Latinos who died in needless agony because they did not have this end-of-life care option and to urge the New York legislature to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act.
Sadly, despite polling showing a supermajority of Americans (67 percent -72 percent) support medical aid in dying across the political and religious spectrum (including Catholics like California Gov. Jerry Brown and me), some people oppose affording terminally ill individuals this option to end intolerable suffering, even when hospice and palliative care cannot provide relief.
The good news is that hospice and palliative care does provide relief from suffering in most, but not all cases.
In fact, medical aid-in-dying laws require doctors to advise patients who request medical aid in dying about all their end-of-life care options, including hospice and palliative care, resulting in earlier and more effective utilization of these other options, as The Los Angeles Times reported last year. Between 80 percent to 90 percent of terminally ill patients who utilize medical aid in dying are already enrolled in hospice care, according to reports in states where this option is available.
To be clear, no terminally ill person, doctor, hospice professional, nurse or pharmacist has to participate in medical aid-in-dying laws if they object to doing so.
Unfortunately that fact seems irrelevant to opponents. They prefer to impose their ethical and moral views upon a huge majority of Americans and insist no one should have this end-of-life care option.
Two well-meaning opponents of medical aid in dying are Kristen Hanson and her late husband, JJ Hanson, a young Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war, who had a similar brain cancer diagnosis to Brittany’s. But JJ knew no two diagnoses are identical, even if the disease has the same name.
Despite our opposing views on end-of-life care, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting JJ Hanson before he died last year. I consider him my friend and still keep his texts and voicemails. By the end of our conversations, he understood the suffering Brittany had endured before deciding to utilize medical aid in dying, enabling her to pass peacefully in her sleep. “I’m glad she was able to have a gentle dying experience,” he said kindly.
Likewise, I am glad to know that my friend JJ’s death played out in accordance with his beliefs.Brittany, like JJ, was striving to live as long as possible.
In her case the tumor was massive and after enduring her eight-hour surgery the available treatment options would have stolen her quality of life. The average life expectancy of a patient with a Glioblastoma Multiforme is 15 months. It ended John McCain’s life in 12 months, Brittany’s after 10 months.
I celebrate that JJ was one of the outliers, the lucky ones to outlive the average. He navigated his cancer for 3-1/2 years. But in the end, death was still the result. Brittany refused to let cancer defeat her spirit or soaring personality.
Death was inevitable, but she was going to die on her terms, not the cancer’s.
Hope comes in more forms than simply the hope that medical treatment will achieve a total cure and postpone death indefinitely. Brittany’s hope was to live each day to the fullest and to leave lasting memories of adventure, bravery and joy rather than of her pain and needless suffering.
Dan Diaz: I have met with New Jersey lawmakers repeatedly to urge them to pass the Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act and will do so again on Oct. 29. (Courtesy of TheBrittanyFund.org)
My hope is that one day every American will have the option of medical aid in dying so that they can pass peacefully in whatever way they decide is appropriate.
That is why I urge every state legislature to pass these laws. It is important for lawmakers to recognize that medical aid in dying does not cause more people to die. It just allows more dying people to peacefully stop needless suffering at life’s inevitable end.
Dan Diaz lives in California, but travels to states across the country to urge lawmakers to pass medical aid-in-dying laws.
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