The other California girl in a video about assisted suicide
After Brittany Maynard comes Stephanie Packer. But she wants to live.
Brittany Maynard’s story continues to reverberate in California’s debate about assisted suicide. However, opponents of bill SB-128 also have stories. Stephanie Packer, another California resident, was also 29 when doctors told her that her illness was terminal. They gave her three years, three years ago, so she feels that she is doing well.
Her disease is scleroderma, a hardening of tissue. In her case it has settled in her lungs. According to NPR, “Packer’s various maladies have her in constant, sometimes excruciating pain, she says. She also can’t digest food properly and feels extremely fatigued almost all the time.” However, she is buoyed up by the love and support of her four rambunctious children and her husband.
“Wanting the pain to stop, wanting the humiliating side effects to go away — that’s absolutely natural,” Packer says. “I absolutely have been there and I still get there some days. But I don’t get to that point of wanting to end it all, because I have been given the tools to understand that today is a horrible day, but tomorrow doesn’t have to be.”
https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/TH_stephanie45454.jpg
Creative commons
assisted suicide
Brittany Maynard
California
More Stories
Missouri man killed wife because he couldn’t afford her medical bills
A 75-year-old Missouri man has been charged with the murder of his wife after allegedly strangling her in a hospital bed because...
Ireland’s medical council gears up for legal assisted dying
In March, a committee of Ireland’s parliament recommended that “the Government introduce legislation allowing forassisted dying”. If this is approved,...
Texas doctor found guilty of poisoning patients
A Texas anaesthetist has been convicted on charges of injecting patients' IV bags with dangerous drugs, which led to the...
Ukrainian man sells suicide powders on the internet from a flat in Kyiv
A Ukrainian man from Kyiv has been sending parcels of suicide powder to the United Kingdom since at least 2020...
UK parliament report on ‘assisted dying’ refuses to take sides
A long-anticipated report from the British Parliament on “assisted dying” has not made any dramatic recommendations, to the dismay of supporters and...
Australia’s Northern Territory ponders ‘assisted dying’
The government of Australia’s Northern Territory is surveying residents to assess the scope of a voluntary assisted dying law. All states have...