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Did Brittany Maynard die freely?
This is the question that must be asked after the attractive 29-year-old woman with a brain tumour announced earlier in the week that she would probably postpone the assisted suicide she had scheduled for Saturday, November 1.
“I still feel good enough, and I still have enough joy — and I still laugh and smile with my friends and my family enough — that it doesn’t seem like the right time right now,” she said in a YouTube video.
Sometime, yes, but not Saturday.
It must have been a bitter pill for Compassion & Choices, the assisted suicide lobby group which had used her as a poster girl for its campaign for legalisation.
The members of its boards of directors and advisors are nearly all in their 60s, 70s and 80s.
Here was a winsome and articulate woman in her 20s, a woman who had attracted international media attention by setting a firm date for her assisted suicide, a woman who was a shining icon of everything they were fighting for.
And she had stepped back from the cliff’s edge.
Then came news a few hours ago from Compassion & Choices. A Facebook post said: “We’re sad to announce the passing of a dear and wonderful woman, Brittany Maynard. She passed peacefully in her bed surrounded by close family and loved ones.”
It could be the opening for a Kay Scarpetta novel.
How can anyone be sure now that Brittany died freely?
How can anyone be sure that Compassion & Choices did not apply moral pressure on her to fulfil her commitment and not to disappoint the wonderful people who had made her famous?
Just for the record, I’m reasonably confident that everything about Brittany’s death was completely aboveboard. No need to call in the detectives.
But one of the problems with assisted suicide is that the principal witness is no longer with us.
We can be pretty confident — but we can’t be certain. Continue reading
- Michael Cook in MercatorNet
- See also, Fr Frank Brennan, Do we have a right to assisted suicide? in Eureka Street
Michael Cook is editor of MercatorNet.
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