OPINION:
I admire the courage of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, the terminally ill woman who recently died in Portland, Ore. In order to die with dignity, not to suffer excessive pain and not to be a burden to others by becoming severely incapacitated, she chose to move from California to Oregon, where it was legal to die using a form of physician-assisted suicide.
Because she suffered from brain cancer, it was a blessing that she could die on her own terms rather than being stuck in a lonely hospital bed for a prolonged period, in agony at the end.
The real tragedy of her death is that she couldn’t die in her home state of California, as physician-assisted suicides are illegal here. Hopefully, someday they will be legal in all states.
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KENNETH L. ZIMMERMAN
Huntington Beach, Calif.
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