WATCH: Brittany Maynard had inoperable brain cancer and made an eloquent, public case for wanting to end her life. Her heartbreaking situation and case for the right to die with dignity caught international attention. On Saturday, Maynard brought her struggle to an end. Eric Sorensen reports.
Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old American woman diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, has ended her life, according to a post on her website.
Maynard was diagnosed with brain cancer in January. But after doctors told her in April that she had six months left to live – and that her last days would be painful – Maynard and her family moved from their home in the San Francisco Bay Area to Oregon, one of five states that have passed the Death with Dignity Act.
READ MORE: Brittany Maynard’s death rekindles arguments surrounding doctor-assisted dying
Her website says she passed away in a “little yellow house” in the city of Portland.
According to TIME magazine, Maynard wrote a parting message on Facebook to her family and friends:
“Goodbye to all my dear friends and family that I love. Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness, this terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me … but would have taken so much more. The world is a beautiful place, travel has been my greatest teacher, my close friends and folks are the greatest givers. I even have a ring of support around my bed as I type … Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!”
READ MORE: Woman with brain cancer plans to end her life November 1
Maynard had planned to die on November 1, but in an emotional video released on Oct. 29 she said she may delay her death.
“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 now,” she said in the video. “But it will come because I see myself getting sicker. It’s happening each week.”
WATCH: In a new video, 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, who suffers from a terminal brain cancer, says she hasn’t decided when she will end her life.
READ MORE: ‘I still have enough joy’: Brittany Maynard posts new video on decision to die
Maynard is survived by her husband Daniel Diaz, her mother Deborah Ziegler and her stepfather Gary Holmes.
An obituary posted on her site said Maynard was an “accomplished and adventuresome traveler” who taught in orphanages in Nepal, climbed to the summit of Kilimanjaro with a friend just a month before her wedding and enjoyed ice climbing and scuba diving.
Months after being told by a doctor she probably wouldn’t be on her feet for much longer, she was out climbing the ice trails of Alaska with her best friend, according to her site.
“In the face of such terminal illness and pain, Brittany chose to live each day fully, traveled, and kept as physically active and busy as she possibly could,” the obituary reads.
Maynard was a vocal advocate of assisted dying, arguing that all terminally ill patients should be permitted to receive medication that allows them to die on their own terms.
WATCH: Woman with brain cancer explains her choice to end her life
Maynard said her greatest fear was waiting too long to take the medication.
“The worst thing that could happen to me is that I wait too long because I’m trying to seize each day, but I somehow have my autonomy taken away from me by my disease, because of the nature of my cancer.”
WATCH: Cancer doctor speaks on 29-year-old cancer patient’s right to die with dignity
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