Super Bowl Champion Urges His State to Reject Right-to-Die Legislation

Daily Signal 11 March 2015
The right-to-die debate is ramping up across the nation as a number of states consider passing legislation that would allow terminally ill adults to take their own life.

Among them is Maryland, where lawmakers Tuesday heard emotional testimony from former Ravens linebacker O.J. Brigance, who said he’s enjoyed some of the most meaningful years of his life while terminally ill.

“I did not create my life, so I have no right to negate my life,” Brigance stated in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Since being diagnosed, I have done a greater good for society in eight years, than in my 37 years on earth.”

Brigance has been battling ALS—also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease—for eight years.

Once a 2000 Super Bowl champion, Brigance is now confined to a wheelchair.

He urged lawmakers to reject Maryland’s Richard E. Israel and Roger “Pip” Moyer Death With Dignity Act, introduced by Sen. Ron Young and Del. Shane Pendergrass, both Democrats.

The legislation, he wrote, would “devalue the lives and possible future contributions of Marylanders.”

Brigance’s story juxtaposes that of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman with terminal brain cancer, who took her own life last November.
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