Brittany Maynard, ‘Death With Dignity’ Ally, Dies at 29

Brittany Maynard, who became a public face for the “death with dignity” movement in the United States after she was found to have terminal brain cancer, ended her life on Saturday at her home in Portland, Ore. She was 29.

Her death, from barbiturates, was confirmed by her husband, Daniel Diaz, who noted that in accordance with Oregon law her death certificate listed a brain tumor as the cause.

Ms. Maynard learned she had brain cancer on New Year’s Day this year. Her doctors told her at first that she could live for several years, but after further tests they revised the prognosis in April, saying she had only about six months.

“After months of research, my family and I reached a heartbreaking conclusion: There is no treatment that would save my life, and the recommended treatments would have destroyed the time I had left,” Ms. Maynard wrote in a post on CNN’s website.

Ms. Maynard decided that when her condition became unbearable she would end her life with medication. She had to uproot her family from her home in Alamo, Calif., and move to Oregon to receive the barbiturates legally.

“Brittany’s take on this issue was that it just seems ridiculous that we couldn’t live out her final months comfortably in our own home,” Mr. Diaz said in an interview on Monday.

Ms. Maynard contacted Compassion & Choices, an end-of-life rights advocacy group, which helped promote a video she posted on YouTube in early October and a second released a few days ago. The videos have been viewed more than 13 million times, and she was interviewed for an article by People magazine. Her story drew international news coverage.

So-called “death with dignity” laws have been passed in five states but are opposed by many political and religious organizations. Many people publicly asked Ms. Maynard to reconsider her decision, including one woman dying of the same cancer.

Ms. Maynard defended her right to decide.

“I would not tell anyone else that he or she should choose death with dignity,” she wrote on the CNN website. “My question is: Who has the right to tell me that I don’t deserve this choice?”

Brittany Lauren Maynard was born on Nov. 19, 1984, in Anaheim, Calif. She received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2006 and a master’s in education from the University of California, Irvine, in 2010.

She married Mr. Diaz in Sonoma, Calif., in 2012 and taught school in Danville, Calif. An ardent traveler, she had explored Southeast Asia and parts of Central and South America.

Besides her husband, she is survived by her mother, Deborah Ziegler, and her stepfather, Gary Holmes.

Ms. Maynard continued traveling during her last months, visiting Alaska, Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon. Being able to choose when to die, she said, allowed her to live.

“It has given me a sense of peace during a tumultuous time that otherwise would be dominated by fear, uncertainty and pain,” she wrote.