The same day the Florida Gators kick off against the University of Georgia in Jacksonville, 29-year-old Brittany Maynard will decide whether to take her own life in Oregon.
Oregon is one of three states where terminally ill residents can legally request physician-assisted death through lethal medication. Maynard chose to move there with her family after doctors diagnosed her with a stage four brain tumor in April, giving her about six months to live.
Her story sparked a viral discussion about Oregon’s Death with Dignity act, which Norberto Katz, the state Bar family law chairman, said Florida is not pushing for at this time.
“Some people who are very religious believe the sanctity of life is paramount, and it’s up to a higher being, not us, to decide when a life begins or ends,” Katz said. “I don’t think that Florida is to the point where the legislature would pass something like that. It would be doubtful.”
Thirteen years ago, 20-year-old UF business junior Kimberly Riddle’s grandfather was diagnosed with chronic leukemia. Doctors said he had five years left to live. Her family never considered lethal injection, Riddle said, and he died a decade later.
“If he had taken that pill and not fought for it, that would have been five quality years I wouldn’t have had with him,” Riddle said.
In an article Maynard wrote for CNN, she said without the Death with Dignity option, she would have probably suffered in hospice care while her family had to watch.
But Fernando Petry said that is not what hospice is about.
“Why let them euthanize themselves when their family could possibly be giving them the same level of care and really be with them?” said Petry, Haven Hospice’s vice president and chief medical officer.
“I don’t know if it would benefit people,” he said, “but I think that the patient having the ability to make the choice at the end of life of how they would like to die is as important as making the choice of how you want to live.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 10/24/2014]
