Terminal cancer patient, Brittany Maynard, 29, exercises her right-to-die

Daily Mail ^ | November 2, 2014 | Wills Robinson

[CorporateStepsister]

A 29-year-old terminal cancer sufferer who had previously spoken of her right to die has ended her own life surrounded by her family.

According to friends and family of Brittany Maynard, she passed away in her Portland, Oregon, home after her condition worsened and the tumor took over.

However she was able to choose to die before she lost her ability to function.

People.com said she wrote on Facebook : 'Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love.

'Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness, this terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me … but would have taken so much more.'

[cynwoody]

A week ago, or so, she named Nov 1 as the date. Yesterday (the 1st) she said she was delaying it because she felt better. Things must have changed today and she pulled the trigger, so to speak.

Imagine being her.

Then pass judgement on what she did, if you are such scum as to presume to do so!

[Secret Agent Man]

:) wasn’t aware of this either...

[Veggie Todd]

Then pass judgement on what she did, if you are such scum as to presume to do so!

Is that directed at me, or the thread in general? If you directed it to me, I think you misread my post. I was reporting facts as I know them, not passing judgement.

[wardaddy]

I’m 57.

Ive cared for and been present at the following deaths;

Father....brain cancer...same as this girls.....64....hospice center...I watched my dad struggle through the death rattle for days (most folks don’t last the nite)given his supreme athleticism even though the tumour was devouring cerebral tissue hourly...like an all consuming nebula...I thought about the pillow honestly but knew any doc would know instantly from eye capillary ruptures.....you just want their struggle to end...I did not find it as beautiful or peaceful as some here think

Mother....mass in lungs and elsewhere...started ovaries.. 77...home hospice...chemo is truly poison...brutal brutal.....for nothing

Grandmother......mass in lungs etc,........88...hospital....quick

Grandmother......brain tumour.......90....home hospice...went to sleep...peaceful

Father in law.....bone cancer.....81....home hospice.....extreme pain....worst I ever witnessed....three war combat vet.....suffered even with major opiate goodies

Mother in law.....pheocrysetoma and congestive heart failure 75...hospital....had been expected to live

I was in charge of parents hospice as POA in Living Will....spent all night every night up to bitter end with my own parents....months....

This notion many are drugged to death at final stage is not true...I have never seen this in hospice family care and in fact hospitals do everything to not appear that way

Pain meds of course increase in dose for final stage uncle charlie victims but that isn’t what kills them

Unless its brain cancer....which kills life sustaining motor tissue

Folks die of suffocating....pneumonia...struggling to breath....heart gives out

Or liver or kidneys fail

Or less frequently systemic depths...

That’s it....trust me...

Now in nursing homes with no family around or in public hospitals with indifferent care...perhaps

[cynwoody]

Is that directed at me, or the thread in general? If you directed it to me, I think you misread my post. I was reporting facts as I know them, not passing judgement.

Sorry.

My snark was directed at the insinuation that she was coerced.

The danger of coercion is the most powerful argument against assisted suicide. But I don't believe it played a role here.

[LT Brass Bancroft]

I fear that if God has a problem with it, she will have found out too late.

[cynwoody]

I fear that if God has a problem with it, she will have found out too late.

There once was a Frog by the name of Pascal who argued that it is in one's own best interest to behave as if God exists, since the possibility of eternal punishment in hell outweighs any advantage of believing otherwise.

That's a lot for a brain-tumored mind under the threat of renewed seizures to take in.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

In all likelihood, the date was chosen by the suicide activists she’d aligned herself with, due to its proximity to the election.

Perhaps the importance of doing this before the election was impressed upon her by those same people. With numerous suicide initiatives on the ballot, they needed her to go through with this before the Monday news cycle.

[TheOldLady]

So long, HH royal (Posting History)
Hat Tip to WildHighlander57, who pinged me
Another Mr. Know-It-All troll chides FReepers about what is
None of his business and gets a quiet escort to the Viking Kitties mess hall


You'll never tell GeronL "Shame on you" again, loser
He's worth ten of you



FReepmail TheOldLady to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list.

[cva66snipe]

Social media seems to make these folks share every detail. I don’t get it...but I’m an older, very private person

I don't get it either. I post some things sometimes in here but it's to try and help others possibly get through something they're going through. I don't have Facebook, Twitter, etc nor any desire to do so. Things posted in them can get persons hurt in many ways and even killed.

Brain cancer can go one of two ways. In one case the cancer affects the part of the brain that controls pain. People die as a vegetable...but pain free. The second...not so much. The pain is uncontrollable.

Three years ago my dad passed from Cancer that began in the Prostate. Before it was over it had went to his brain. He passed peacefully unconscious. I've seen patients scream in torment for months where I used to work from various diseases including being Diabetic. We'd go home and pray GOD would take them home. That I do not see as being wrong. There seems to be some illusion we are promised a pain free and adversity free life and that's just not true. How we choose to face it and if we include asking GOD's help and will is what matters.

Whatever this young lady did was between her and God.

That's true with all of us. He is indeed the one we all must account too.Social Media is a deception.

I won’t judge her. As of this evening...no one has put me in charge.

Thank GOD except for the acceptance of our salvation and accountability/ responsibility our own acts none of us are in charge of determining others eternal fate :>}

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Whatever this young lady did was between her and God.

That might be true if she hadn't gone public and made a conscious effort to bring state-sanctioned suicide into the forefront ahead of an election.

One thing invariably leads to another. "Death With Dignity" will intersect with Ezekiel Emanuel's "Complete Lives System". The end result will be anything but dignified or compassionate.

In our haste to not judge the woman, we're failing to see the act for what it is, and to follow it through to its logical conclusion. The entire health care system of the United States has already been reordered to limit care and bring about the end of life on the state's terms. This young girl was used to put a pretty face to something horrific, and she was selected solely on the basis of her age and appearance. That's not judgement, just a well-founded assessment.

[FamiliarFace]

I didn’t say we can’t condemn her ACTIONS. I responded to a post where the other person said s/he didn’t condemn HER.

Brittany made her choice, but it is a condemnable one, that unfortunately, there was no time to repent from it. At least, not on this earth.

I truly pray for her soul.

[luvie]

Nom-nom...crunch..crunch.

*burp*

[Darksheare]

So sorry about your handle.

[Mortimer St. Hubbins]

God bless you for the love and devotion to your family. It is never easy for those of us in such a position to watch our loved ones suffer and die.

The beauty I speak of in death is made of such acts of loving commitment as this. Not all family members would do so much.

I knew a woman personally-she was in her thirties, physically attractive, very healthy, married with children when discovered she had breast cancer. She was not terminal, but due to vanity, she did not wish to have her breasts removed. This woman was not a Christian. She traveled to So. America in order to see a “doctor” who could heal her using the “dark arts”. When she died her husband was not at bedside. He didn’t want to be there.

On the last day of one of our loved ones final stage of cancer, we sang to him. He said my spouses name then passed away. The privilege of providing some form of comfort and reassurance—these expressions of love are what I mean when I describe the “beauty” in death.

Death is ugly. We were not originally designed to experience death, so it is natural that we not only hate it, but it causes us profound sadness and grief to watch our loved ones endure such suffering.

I’m not being sentimental or romanticizing death. To be surrounded by loved ones in your final moments before stepping into the presence of God is truly a blessing....and a beautiful kind of pain.

[skinkinthegrass]

OH! MY!..the *ZOT!* Kittens; Are showing US (mere humans),
their Comic side..pretty. They must be huuuungry.

[TheOldLady]

Pretty tasty one, no?

[TheOldLady]

I'm amazed at the reasons for all these ZOTs. It's
different for each one. I am more familiar with anti-FReepers getting
the boot, but there are a lot of things trolls can do to be escorted
to the door of the Viking Kitties Mess.

[GeronL]

very possible

[woofie]

I wasn’t going to jump into this debate as there are no easy resolution to the questions that arise. Medical technology has muddied he waters around life and death or maybe things have always been muddy.

But the zotting worries me. I think the issues are complex enough to allow for people of all persuasions to have their views.

here is my story

My mother had leukemia..... at the end they would give her blood transfusions and she would perk up for a week, Then she would bleed internally and she would again be at death’s door. This went on for about a month

I was not there but as it got worse her reprieve got shorter and shorter. Transfusion might buy a day or two.
The Doctors told her and my brother that she would very soon start bleeding from her eyes , mouth, ears etc.

That was it
She decided no more blood transfusions. She said her goodbyes to all and at that point she looked visually to be in good shape. She got something to help her sleep
That night she had a heart attack and died.
should she get blood ....no blood ? Once you are at that point who is to say?...

We all make our own choices at some level. Whether it is not to see the Doctors...or to keep quiet when you know something major is going on. whether it is to turn off the machines or keep them going. People refuse to eat or drink. I think the will to live plays a big factor at the end.

Life is murky enough so I am not going to worry about someone else’s choices...hard choices are part of life. This lady made hers. I would think without medical intervention she would have died months ago.
She chose to prolong her life as well as end it

Last I have been around FR for a while....I am not trolling and respect everyones views.