Terminally Ill UC Berkeley Graduate, 'Death With Dignity' Advocate Takes Own Life

A terminally ill Bay Area woman who became a “death with dignity” advocate in her final months died Saturday when she took her own life as she had planned, representatives of the group Compassion and Choices said today. Brittany Lauren Maynard, 29, moved to Portland, Oregon, as part of her plan to die as she intended, which was legal under that state’s Death With Dignity Act.

Suffering terminal brain cancer that came with increasingly frequent seizures, severe head and neck pain and stroke-like symptoms, Maynard chose to die peacefully in her bedroom by a lethal dose of prescribed medication. She died in the arms of her loved ones, including her husband, Daniel Diaz, whom she married in 2012, according to Compassion and Choices. An obituary posted to the Brittany Maynard Fund’s website described her as an avid traveler who continued to be active outdoors despite her diagnosis and grim prognosis.

She was diagnosed on Jan. 1 of this year and was told by one doctor that she barely had weeks of being on her feet, but months later was climbing 10-mile ice fields in Alaska with her best friend.

“It is people who pause to appreciate life and give thanks who are happiest,” she said in a statement. “If we change our thoughts, we change our world! Love and peace to you all.”

She was a University of California at Berkeley graduate and earned a master’s degree in education from UC Irvine. Her many adventures included teaching at orphanages in Kathmandu, Nepal, working for a summer in Costa Rica, and traveling Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and Thailand.

Oregon is one of only five states that allow terminally ill patients to take their own life, and Maynard spent much of her final months advocating for the practice to become more widespread. Meanwhile, she moved to a small yellow house in Portland in preparation for her own death, her obituary said. California does not allow the practice. The other states are Washington, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico.

“The freedom is in the choice,” Maynard said. “If the option of (Death With Dignity) is unappealing to anyone for any reason, they can simply choose not to avail themselves of it. Those very real protections are already in place. Maynard is survived by her husband, her mother Deborah Ziegler, her stepfather Gary Holmes, and her three brothers, David, Adrian and Alex.