Unfortunately, in the world we live in, nearly everyone has been touched by someone with cancer. After becoming an outspoken advocate of Death with Dignity, Brittany Maynard touched more lives than I can ever hope to, inspiring much-needed conversations and debate into the way that we meet our end.
For those of you who don't know, Brittany was diagnosed in January with a malignant brain tumor. This spring, she was given six months to live. On Saturday, after months of careful consideration, planning, a move from California to Oregon (a state with a Death with Dignity law), and the support of her friends, family, and thousands of people across the globe, Brittany faced death in the manor I hope to, when that time comes.
Under Oregon's Death with Dignity law, Brittany chose to end her life by taking a fatal dose of barbiturates, prescribed by her doctor. The law provides people with terminal illnesses the option of ending their lives "when their suffering becomes too great."
I'm absolutely terrified of death. I remember as a child laying awake terrified of how I would meet my end, when it would come, if I would live a fulfilling life that touched others. Brittany Maynard did just that.
Some have called her a coward; someone who didn't pursue all means necessary to extend her life; someone who altered God's intended path for her by ending her life on her own terms. To those who criticize her, I say this: Look not at her actions but at your own. Judge not others, but judge yourselves. Live your life with the vigor that Brittany chose to live hers; to speak out for what she believed in, and to live her life the way she saw fit. On her wedding day in September of 2012, Brittany Maynard was on top of the world; a young woman with her entire life ahead of her. A mere two years later, still a young woman, Brittany Maynard chose to make what I consider to be one of the most courageous decisions I can imagine. She chose to die, with dignity, on her own terms. No 29-year-old woman should want to die....but no 29-year-old woman should have terminal brain cancer, either.
We live in a cruel and vicious world where those around us, both young and old, are stolen from our material lives. Car accidents. Cancer. Overdoses. Murder. Old age. There are no expiration dates on our lives; we live each day under the fleeting chance that it could be our last. For most of us, we feel invincible; unable to grasp that, in reality, the time we think we have is never promised to us. Brittany Maynard lived her 29 years with compassion, love, generosity, warmth, and courage. In her final months, she chose to live not only for herself, but for those around her; those who live in states without Death with Dignity laws.
In 2006, I watched one of the most beautiful women I know fight one of the most awful diseases I can think of. My grandmother passed away March 19, 2006, after a year-long fight with cancer. I watched as she endured chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, anything to try and extend the life she knew and loved; to be with her loved ones just a few days longer. I watched as she lost her hair, her ability to taste, drive, play bridge, or do her crossword puzzle. Her slow, painful departure from our material world is something I would never wish on my worst enemy. It's the type of death that Brittany Maynard and those who loved her wished to avoid.
The courage it took for Brittany to open her life to the world, and to speak out in favor of something she believed with her whole heart, is a virtue I can only hope to possess a fraction of.
Brittany Maynard's life was like a candle that burned at both ends: much too short-lived. Oh, but what a beautiful light it was.
