Some Want 'Death With Dignity' Law In Colorado

DENVER (CBS4) – A 29-year-old Oregon woman's desire to die has sparked a national debate and conversation about dignity and death. Brittany Maynard took a deadly dose of drugs prescribed by a doctor and died over the weekend.

Colorado does not have a death with dignity law, but some people would like to see that change.

"I don't want to die. If anyone can hand me a like, a magical cure, and save my life so I can have children with my husband, you know, I will take them up on it," Maynard said in an interview with CBS News.

Maynard was newly married when she was diagnosed with the most aggressive form of brain cancer. She moved to Portland, Oregon, one of five states where it's legal for doctors to help terminally ill patients take their own lives. In Colorado, it's not legal.

"There are many people that are close to death but they are stuck in a body of horrific pain and have no choice but day by day," said Jennifer Blankenship of Denver, who suffers with multiple sclerosis.

Blakenship has lived with MS for 30 years. She can't walk and each day is painful and a challenge for her. She says she would not choose to take her own life if the state allowed it, but she does believe it should be an option in Colorado.

"We've gotten calls from people who are terminally ill themselves, and they say, 'Isn't there something you can do to accelerate this process? I don't want to die in pain,' " Roland Halpern with Compassion and Choices said.

Compassion and Choices, an advocate group for and ensuring access to end-of-life options, says 90 percent of terminally ill patients who counsel to receive the life-ending medication eventually opt out.

"People want just the security of knowing, 'If all else fails, I do have an option.' " Halpern said. "It's a very small number of patients that do get the medication. What we do find is, is a third of those never take it. It just sits in the medicine cabinet."

This year Colorado legislators plan to discuss if the right-to-die laws similar to Oregon's would be an option.