美29岁女子选择结束生命捍卫“死亡权”

美国29岁脑癌患者布列塔尼·梅纳德服药结束了自己的生命，她选择按照自己的意愿过完剩下的日子，“死亡权”倡导组织Compassion & Choices周日宣布。

在发现自己的治疗无法挽救自己的生命时，梅纳德和家人决定迁至俄勒冈州波特兰市，那里有《尊严死亡法》，允许身患绝症、剩下不到6个月生命但心智健全的成人遵医嘱自行用药结束自己的生命。

梅纳德是“死亡权”倡导者，她和Compassion & Choices密切合作，发起了“有尊严地死去”运动，呼吁美国“死亡权”合法化，希望更多地方立法，允许人们保有尊严离开人世。

梅纳德在一则视频中解释了自己的选择，900多万人次观看了这则视频，她的故事在社交网上也引发了广泛讨论。

Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old who said she had terminal brain cancer, took medication to end her life under Oregon's "Death with Dignity Act," advocacy group Compassion & Choices said Sunday.

"Brittany chose to make a well thought out and informed choice to die With Dignity in the face of such a terrible, painful, and incurable illness," a post on her website said. "She moved to Oregon to pass away in a little yellow house she picked out in the beautiful city of Portland."

In a statement, Compassion & Choices, an end-of-life choice advocacy group that has been working closely with Maynard, said she "died as she intended -- peacefully in her bedroom, in the arms of her loved ones."

Maynard passed away Saturday, said the group, which released an official obituary.

The epitaph contained a final message from Maynard, who expressed a note of deep thanks to all of her supporters, whom she "sought out like water" during her life and illness.

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

Maynard graduated from University of California, Berkeley, and earned a Masters in Education from University of California, Irvine, according to the obituary. She was a world traveler who volunteered at a local animal rescue organization before her diagnosis and lived 29 years of "generosity, compassion, education, travel, and humor," it said.

Maynard is survived by her husband and his family, her mother and stepfather.

"While she had longed for children of her own, she left this world with zero regrets on time spent, places been, or people she loved in her 29 years," the obituary said.

Maynard's story spread rapidly on social media as a video explaining her choice garnered more than 9 million views on YouTube.

She became a prominent spokeswoman for the "death with dignity" movement, which advocates that terminally ill patients be allowed to receive medication that will let them die on their own terms. She also became a lightning rod for criticism from people who oppose that approach.

"I quickly decided that death with dignity was the best option for me and my family," Maynard wrote in an opinion column for CNN explaining her choice. "We had to uproot from California to Oregon, because Oregon is one of only five states where death with dignity is authorized."

In a video released last week, Maynard said she hadn't yet decided when she would end her life.

"I still feel good enough, and I still have enough joy, and I still laugh and smile with my family and friends enough that it doesn't seem like the right time right now. But it will come, because I feel myself getting sicker. It's happening each week," Maynard said in the video, which was produced by Compassion & Choices and released to CNN last Wednesday.

Maynard said she had stage IV glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of terminal brain cancer.

When she first started speaking out about her decision, Maynard said that in early November she planned to take the medication she'd been prescribed. In her latest video, she said she was waiting to see how her symptoms progress before deciding on a date.

But taking too long to make that choice was one of her greatest fears, Maynard said.

"The worst thing that could happen to me is that I wait too long because I'm trying to seize each day," she says, "but I somehow have my autonomy taken away from me by my disease, because of the nature of my cancer."