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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.

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