California Woman With ALS Holds Party Before Killing Herself
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A California woman with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, held a two-day party for her friends and relatives to say goodbye before taking her life with a dose of prescribed drugs.
Betsy Davis, 41, became one of the first Californians to make use a new state law allowing doctor-assisted suicide. Four other states have such laws, with Oregon the first in 1997.
Davis shared her plans with her guests, giving them a detailed schedule for the weekend that included the hour she planned to slip into a coma.
There were cocktails. There was pizza from her favorite local joint. There was a screening of one of her favorite movies. And then her friends said their goodbyes and left.
Davis was wheeled out to a canopy bed on a hillside and took her own life.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.