Background:
Update - Nov. 2, 2014 at 11:10pm EST: We have just learned that Brittany took her own life on Saturday evening. Find out more here.
Brittany Maynard is a 29-year-old former athlete who was diagnosed in January with an inoperable brain tumor, and only given months to live.
She subsequently announced, in a video produced by the assisted suicide advocacy organization Compassion and Choices, that she intended to end her own life under Oregon’s assisted suicide law on Nov. 1. She and her husband have moved to the state in anticipation of her suicide.
However, in a second video released Oct. 30, she said that she would not take her own life on Nov. 1, as originally planned, but that she still intended to do so when her disease progressed further. In that video she also stated that her goal is to work towards the legalization of assisted suicide nationwide.
Though we cannot begin to understand the place of suffering from which Brittany has made her decision, and cast no judgment on her, we do not believe that suicide is ever the answer to suffering.
At this difficult time, Brittany most of all needs our support and our prayers for her well-being, in particular that she will be given the strength to face her illness and find meaning in her suffering. We will ask God to heal her spiritually, physically, and emotionally - not through judgment, but love, even as we express our disagreement with her intention to end her life and her promotion of suicide for others.
Please sign this petition offering your prayers for Brittany, and share it with your family and friends.
