<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">The cover story of the October 27, 2014, issue of <a href="http://www.people.com/article/terminally-ill-brittany-maynard-decision-to-die">PEOPLE Magazine</a> featured Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old Oregon woman with terminal brain cancer. </span><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">In the article, Ms. Maynard announced that she would end her life on November 1, 2014, on her own terms, availing herself of the physician-assisted suicide option under the 1997 Oregon<a href="http://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Pages/index.aspx">Death With Dignity Act</a> (DWDA). </span><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">As planned, and according to her own schedule and timetable, she <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/11/02/brittany-maynard-/18390069/">died peacefully at home</a> – surrounded by family and friends – on Saturday, November 1. </span><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">She had signaled earlier in the week that she might <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/10/30/brittany-maynard-puts-off-ending-her-life/18166161/">delay taking her own life</a>, but in the end, it occurred as she <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/30/brittany-maynard-terminally-ill-cancer-patient-ret/">originally planned</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"></span><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">In electing assisted suicide, Ms. Maynard said, “I’m choosing to put myself through less emotional and physical pain.” She continued, “I don’t want to die, but I’m dying. My cancer is going to kill me, and it’s a terrible, terrible way to die. … When I look at both options I have to die [dying from the cancer versus dying from an overdose], I feel this [a fatal dose] is far more humane.” But rethinking the possibilities after developing a rather extensive plan in orchestrating one’s death with a terminal illness is not that unusual either. Roughly 40% of those who obtain the lethal doses of medicine under Oregon’s DWDA in the end die not from suicide but disease. According to an article in </span><em style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/ten-years-of-death-with-dignity">The New Atlantis</a></em><span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">, written to report a 10-year experience under the DWDA, author Courtney Campbell wrote, “In ten years, 541 Oregon residents have received lethal prescriptions to end their lives; of this number, 341 patients actually ingested the drugs.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0400009155273px;"><strong style="color: #34405b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.0400009155273px;">The Alden March Bioethics Institute offers a Master of Science in Bioethics, a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Bioethics, and Graduate Certificates in Clinical Ethics and Clinical Ethics Consultation. For more information on AMBI's online graduate programs, please visit our <a style="text-decoration: underline; color: #000099;" href="http://www.amc.edu/Academic/bioethics/index.cfm">website</a>.</strong></p>
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