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Terminally Ill ‘Death with Dignity’ Advocate Dies

Courtesy of thebrittanyfund.com
Courtesy of thebrittanyfund.com

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A spokesman for a terminally ill Oregon woman says she has taken lethal medication prescribed by a doctor and died.

Sean Crowley, spokesman from the group Compassion & Choices, said late Sunday that Brittany Maynard was surrounded by family Saturday when she took the medication. She was weeks shy of her 30th birthday.

Maynard had incurable brain cancer. She said she wasn’t suicidal but wanted to die on her own terms. She moved to Portland from California, a state that does not have aid-in-dying laws.

She became an advocate for Compassion & Choices, which seeks to expand the laws beyond a handful of states.

More than 750 people in Oregon have died using the law since 1998. The state does not track how many of them moved from another state.

Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity Act in 1994, but opponents persuaded a federal judge to issue an injunction temporarily blocking the law. Voters in November 1997 overwhelmingly reaffirmed the nation’s first aid-in-dying law and it’s been in place ever since.

According to state statistics compiled through Dec. 31, 2013:

— People who have used the law since late 1997: 752 (396 men, 356 women)

— People younger than 35 who have used the law: 6

— Median age of the deceased: 71

— Percentage of the deceased who were white: 97

— Percentage who had at least some college: 72

— Percentage of patients who informed relatives of their decision: 94

— Percentage of patients who died at a home: 95 percent

— Median minutes between ingestion of lethal drug and unconsciousness: 5

— Median minutes between ingestion and death: 25

— Number of terminally ill people who have moved to Oregon to die: unknown

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