XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: sk.politics, man.politics, mtl.general   
   From: Panca@nyet.ca   
      
   And until we shake our neanderthal government in Ottawa, more Canadians will be   
   forced to do the same.   
      
   _____________________________________________________   
   Vancouver Sun/ The Associated Press - November 3, 2014   
      
      
   Terminally ill woman who became 'death with dignity' advocate ends her own life   
      
      
   PORTLAND, Ore. - A young woman who moved to Oregon to take advantage of the   
   state's assisted-suicide law took lethal drugs prescribed by a doctor and has   
   died, a spokesman said Sunday.   
      
   Brittany Maynard, 29, was diagnosed with brain cancer on New Year's Day and was   
   later given six months to live. She and her husband, Dan Diaz, moved from   
   California because that state does not allow terminally ill patients to end   
   their lives with lethal drugs prescribed by a doctor.   
      
   Maynard became a nationally recognized advocate for the group Compassion &   
   Choices, which seeks to expand aid-in-dying laws beyond a handful of states.   
      
   Sean Crowley, a spokesman for Compassion & Choices, said in a statement late   
   Sunday that Maynard died Saturday "as she intended — peacefully in her   
   bedroom,   
   in the arms of her loved ones."   
      
   Crowley said Maynard "suffered increasingly frequent and longer seizures,   
   severe head and neck pain, and stroke-like symptoms. As symptoms grew more   
   severe she chose to abbreviate the dying process by taking the aid-in-dying   
   medication she had received months ago."   
      
   Maynard's story, accompanied by photos from her pre-illness wedding day, got   
   attention across the globe while igniting a debate about doctor-assisted   
   suicide.   
      
   She told reporters she planned to take her life Saturday, less than three weeks   
   before her 30th birthday, but later said she was feeling well enough to   
   possibly postpone. She said she wasn't suicidal but wanted to die on her own   
   terms, and she reserved the right to move the death date forward or push it   
   back.   
      
   She said her husband and other relatives accepted her choice.   
      
   "I think in the beginning my family members wanted a miracle; they wanted a   
   cure for my cancer," she told The Associated Press in early October.  "I wanted   
   a cure for my cancer.  I still want a cure for my cancer.  One does not exist,   
   at least that I'm aware of.   
      
   "When we all sat down and looked at the facts, there isn't a single person that   
   loves me that wishes me more pain and more suffering."   
      
   Oregon was the first U.S. state to make it legal for a doctor to prescribe a   
   life-ending drug to a terminally ill patient of sound mind who makes the   
   request. The patient must swallow the drug without help; it is illegal for a   
   doctor to administer it.   
      
   More than 750 people in Oregon used the law to die as of Dec. 31, 2013.  The   
   median age of the deceased is 71. Only six were younger than 35, like Maynard.   
      
   The state does not track how many terminally ill people move to Oregon to die.   
   A patient must prove to a doctor that they are living in Oregon. Some examples   
   of documentation include a rental agreement, a voter registration card or a   
   driver's license.   
      
   Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity Act in 1994, then reaffirmed it   
   —   
   60 per cent to 40 per cent — in 1997.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)