‘The Brittany Maynard Story' by Brittany Maynard

Brittany Maynard was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at the age of 29 and was quickly told that she had a tumour of the most aggressive kind. Realising that none of the available treatment options would offer a cure, and that many of them would lessen the quality of her final weeks of life, Brittany decided that she wanted an assisted death. As assisted dying was not authorised in her home state of California, Brittany moved to the state of Oregon, where assisted dying was and remains available under the state’s Death with Dignity Act. In the video, Brittany shares the emotional impact of not only being diagnosed with terminal cancer at such a young age, but of having to leave her home, friends, and family in order to access the assisted death she desires. The video presents Brittany’s story as a catalyst for change. While ‘death with dignity’ appears as a recurrent theme, and both Brittany and her husband, Dan Diaz, discuss the benefits of ‘death with dignity’ laws for those who wish to access an assisted death, it is Brittany’s life story, and her efforts to make the most of every remaining day, that occupy the greatest portion of the video. This emphasis on Brittany’s story offers a more human and personal image of the ‘death with dignity’ lobby.

This effort to humanise the campaign is evident at an aesthetic level. The video interweaves close-up shots of Brittany with personal photographs of key life moments and travels. Emotive music plays in the background as Brittany recounts her story, and this same music accompanies the explanatory text that appears on screen at times. The text is white, set against a black background, which captures something of the stark reality facing Brittany and her family, and offers a reminder of the weight of the subject being discussed. The inclusion of a description of Brittany’s imagined, ideal dying scene, voiced over a photograph of the bed where we assume her life will come to an end, adds further emotional weight to the account. The video also features additional voices, namely those of Brittany’s husband and mother, Debbie Ziegler, who each speak to different aspects of Brittany’s character and thereby provide a fuller picture of who she is and what matters most to her. This expansion of the personal portrait offered by the video invokes further empathy from the viewer – empathy that is then harnessed to achieve the video’s communicative aims.

The video went live on People.com on the morning of 6 October 2014, and by that afternoon over 400,000 people had come to Brittany’s website to ‘take action’. Today, the video has been viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube; however, Compassion & Choices suggests that by the time of Brittany’s death, 3 weeks after the video’s publication, over 100 million people had come to know her story. As a result of this and other videos she recorded for Compassion & Choices (part of a larger social media campaign), and the interviews she gave to diverse media outlets, Brittany Maynard has become a key figure in the lobby to introduce ‘death with dignity’ laws, not only in the USA but around the world. Within a year of her death, the Governor of California had signed the state’s End of Life Option Act into law, and a further 24 states had introduced bills related to assisted dying. While many of these bills eventually fell (at the time of writing, only 13 US states, plus the District of Columbia allow assisted dying), the surge in legislative activity immediately following Brittany’s death testifies to the significance of her story in the US. At an international level, Brittany Maynard has become an important reference point in anglophone political debate, with her story being cited in national and regional parliaments in the UK, Canada and Australia, both in chamber debates and committee evidence. Likewise, references to Brittany’s story in the media, by lobby groups, and in international legal and political discourse have consistently highlighted the extent of her influence on legislative change. Indeed, the passing of subsequent assisted dying laws in various US states has been framed by some as a direct result of Brittany’s decision to share her story. This framing is particularly evident in several of Compassion & Choices’ later videos, which seek to demonstrate the influence of Brittany’s story at key milestones following her death (e.g. ‘Brittany Maynard’s Legacy: One Year Later’; ‘Five Years after Brittany Maynard's Death, Her Advocacy for Medical Aid in Dying Lives On’). Brittany’s efforts to effect legislative change continue to be perpetuated by her husband and mother, who regularly advocate for changes in legislation in those states and countries that do not currently allow assisted dying. Dan Diaz and Deborah (Debbie) Zeigler have also crafted their own cultural productions, influenced by Brittany’s story, thereby creating a multimodal and multilayered narrative of Brittany’s life, death, and advocacy, which ensures that her name lives on and the impact of her story continues to be felt on the global stage.