Brittany Maynard, Death With Dignity Advocate, Dies At 29

[NutmegYankee]

21. The entire experience was horrible.

And I started crying right after I wrote that because it came flooding back. Memories like when the steroids finally failed to stop the swelling and my father's brain suffered massive hemorrhaging, the doctors hooking him up to a ventilator against his and our wishes, and the nasty fight we had with the doctor who wanted to withhold the morphine because it could cause him to stop breathing. That was our society - withholding pain meds because a terminal patient with maybe a day or two to live could stop breathing if he got them. We won the fight, but it took an entire day to get him off the ventilator and transported home where he died within hours.