- Feb 5, 2002
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“I’m doing MAID at noon. I need you to get back to me before then.”
MAID is medically assisted suicide. Julie had chosen it and was “trying to take one thing off” her wife, Maddy’s, to-do list, her brother recently wrote in the New York Times.
Julie had been suffering with ovarian cancer since 2017, and her doctor was now predicting she had “two to three months” left to live. When Julie, a lawyer, opted for suicide, she explained how she had watched as women in her online support group died with last-minute treatments being tried. “I do not want to die like that,” she told her brother. “This is about taking control of my life.” Her brother, the author of the piece, is a writer (contributing columnist to the Washington Post), Steven Petrow. And she got him to commit to writing about how she died so that more people would know that suicide is an alternative in 10 states and D.C.
Petrow describes how “Maddy, Julie’s spouse of 35 years, picked up the prescription from a local pharmacy.” Insurance wasn’t picking up the cost, so it was $900. Before she died, the family prepared the obituary, program for the memorial, and a 14-minute video of her life for the memorial service to come, which she watched after a final walk in her garden. “I don’t want to leave you,” she cried “for a moment softly.” She sat down on a sofa in her office, “Maddy prepared the medications,” and the Serenity Prayer was said. It was Maddy and the two daughters Julie and Maddy raised together in the end. “Within minutes, she was unconscious.”
God bless this family. God rest her soul. This should not be normalized.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
MAID is medically assisted suicide. Julie had chosen it and was “trying to take one thing off” her wife, Maddy’s, to-do list, her brother recently wrote in the New York Times.
Julie had been suffering with ovarian cancer since 2017, and her doctor was now predicting she had “two to three months” left to live. When Julie, a lawyer, opted for suicide, she explained how she had watched as women in her online support group died with last-minute treatments being tried. “I do not want to die like that,” she told her brother. “This is about taking control of my life.” Her brother, the author of the piece, is a writer (contributing columnist to the Washington Post), Steven Petrow. And she got him to commit to writing about how she died so that more people would know that suicide is an alternative in 10 states and D.C.
Petrow describes how “Maddy, Julie’s spouse of 35 years, picked up the prescription from a local pharmacy.” Insurance wasn’t picking up the cost, so it was $900. Before she died, the family prepared the obituary, program for the memorial, and a 14-minute video of her life for the memorial service to come, which she watched after a final walk in her garden. “I don’t want to leave you,” she cried “for a moment softly.” She sat down on a sofa in her office, “Maddy prepared the medications,” and the Serenity Prayer was said. It was Maddy and the two daughters Julie and Maddy raised together in the end. “Within minutes, she was unconscious.”
God bless this family. God rest her soul. This should not be normalized.
Choosing to love
Continued below.
It's not cruel to oppose medically assisted suicide
A recent article in the New York Times featured the story of Julie, who since 2017 had battled ovarian cancer and recently opted for medically assisted suicide. But what does the legality of assisted suicide say to those who are suffering?
www.oursundayvisitor.com
