Coloradans will have the chance to vote on the medical aid in dying initiative, Proposition 106, this November. The measure would allow terminally ill patients who suffer from painful conditions to shorten the dying process by taking prescribed medication.
The pro-106 group Yes on Colorado End-of-Life Options began airing TV advertisements earlier this week, which feature Brittany Maynard, who in 2014 died of brain cancer at the age of 29.
In the ad, an emotional Maynard explains the conditions that make her situation unbearable, like severe headaches and being unable to remember her husband’s name.
She and her husband moved from California to Oregon, where medical aid in dying was authorized, in order to have the option of a more peaceful death. “Cancer is ending my life,” she says in the ad. “I am choosing to end it in a lot less pain and suffering.”
Brittany’s husband Dan Maynard has advocated for the expansion of end-of-life options since her death, including in California, where the legislation was passed earlier this year.
Proposition 106 is modeled after Oregon’s 20-year-old Death with Dignity Act. Colorado would become the sixth state to allow medical aid in dying if the measure passes.
