"[8][11] She partnered with Compassion & Choices to create the Brittany Maynard Fund, which seeks to legalize assisted death in states where it is now illegal.

[14] Maynard married Daniel Esteban "Dan" Diaz in September 2012, and before she received her diagnosis, they had hoped to start a family.

Today is the day I have chosen to pass away with dignity in the face of my terminal illness, this terrible brain cancer that has taken so much from me ... but would have taken so much more.

"[23] In the weeks leading up to her death, Maynard was said to have become the face of the United States right-to-die debate, commanding public attention,[24][25][26] with over 16 million unique visitors reading her story on People.com.

[24][28] Marcia Angell, the former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, wrote that Maynard was a "new face" of the assisted dying movement who had "greatly helped future patients who want the same choice.

"[24][32] Brittany's mother defended her daughter's decision via a letter released by Compassion & Choices, stating "My twenty-nine-year-old daughter's choice to die gently rather than suffer physical and mental degradation and intense pain does not deserve to be labelled as reprehensible by strangers a continent away who do not know her or the particulars of her situation.

[36][37] Maynard's family have played video testimony that she recorded for proposed legislative change in her home state of California.

[38] On September 11, 2015, California lawmakers gave final approval to Senate Bill (SB 128) End of Life Option Act.