One of the first Californians to die under the state’s new doctor-assisted suicide law held a party before ending her life.
Betsy Davis, a 41-year-old artist, who suffered from ALS, a neurodegenerative disease, held a gathering of 30 friends in the mountain town of Ojai in southern California.
She then took a cocktail of drugs, prescribed by her doctor, which killed her.
“You are all very brave for sending me off on my journey,” she wrote in her invitation email, “thank you so much for traveling the physical and emotional distance for me.
“These circumstances are unlike any party you have attended before, requiring emotional stamina, centeredness, and openness.”
Disability rights groups were opposed to California’s new law, citing fears terminally ill people could be coerced into ending their life.
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Feature image courtesy The Independent
