The Latest: Woman with ALS holds party before ending life

SAN DIEGO – The Latest on terminally ill woman who held a party before ending her life. (all times local):

3:15 p.m.

The sister of a terminally ill woman who held a party before ending her life with a dose of prescribed drugs says Betsy Davis was cremated.

Kelly Davis said the guests at the party in the California mountain town of Ojai will meet again next year on June 6 in the desert town of Joshua Tree to celebrate the birthday of Betsy Davis and scatter her ashes.

Betsy Davis who had ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, held the two-day party in late July. She became one of the first Californians to make use of a new state law allowing life-ending drugs for the terminally ill.

12:53 p.m. A California woman with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, held a two-day party for her friends and relatives to say goodbye before ending 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 favourite local joint. There was a screening of one of her favourite movies. And then her friends said their goodbyes and left.

Davis was wheeled out to a canopy bed on a hillside where she took the life-ending drugs.