Woman who fought for medically assisted dying bill dies at 57
Approachable, enthusiastic, considerate and thoughtful.
That’s how the family of Lynda Brooks-Bracey, a 57-year-old Las Vegas woman who spent her last months advocating for a bill that would have legalized medically assisted dying in Nevada, remembered her in an obituary written after her passing.
Brooks-Bracey died of pancreatic cancer last month after advocating for Senate Bill 239, which would have allowed medical providers to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients that they could self-administer to end their lives.
The bill, which was also known as the death with dignity bill, was passed by the Senate and House in the Nevada Legislature, but was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo, who called the provisions in the bill “unnecessary” due to expansions and improvements in pain management and care for people living with serious illnesses.
Brooks was a strong advocate for the bill, doing interviews with media — despite her illness and treatment — up until three days before Lombardo ultimately vetoed the bill on June 5. Brooks died two-and-a-half weeks later.
Patricia González-Portillo, National Latino Media Director for the advocacy group Compassion and Choices, was the one who made Brooks aware of the fact that the governor had vetoed the bill.
“In her last text to me she told me to not give up and that this matters to so many people,” González-Portillo said.
She remembered Brooks-Bracey as a strong advocate despite her illness, someone who never said no to an interview and never said no to testifying.
“She just kept going and going,” González-Portillo said.
Sara Manns, Nevada campaign director for Compassion and Choices, said it was heartbreaking and unjust that Lynda was forced to endure needless suffering at the end of her life.
González-Portillo said Thursday that while Brooks-Bracey would say in interviews that she may not be alive to see the bill passed, she could have been.
“The governor took that opportunity from her,” she said.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office declined to comment Thursday.
Brooks-Bracey is survived by her husband, Jeff Bracey, the couple’s four adult children and her sister Elizabeth.
