Lauren Hill has died.

Some readers will ask, “Who?” She was a young woman struck down in her prime with brain cancer, just like Brittany Maynard.

Most readers will recognize Maynard’s name immediately. She became an international media celebrity because she decided to commit suicide rather than die naturally from brain cancer.

Hill decided to live until she died. She chose hospice, not hemlock.

Hill received some nice reportage as she played basketball in the face of terminal illness and raised money for research. But nothing like the extravagant international celebration of Maynard, and after the suicide, her family.

Why? I discuss this question more fully at Human Exceptionalism, but here is the gist:

  • Hill wasn’t transgressive. She intended to live with cancer until she died–play basketball, and raise money for research,
  • Maynard used her time to promote hastened death.
  • Hill told the world that hospice allowed her continue living with terminal illness.
  • Maynard rejected hospice and told the world that poison pills were a proper way to end terminal illness.
  • Hill pushed life with dignity.
  • Maynard pushed death with dignity.

The contrast between the levels of attention paid to Hill and Maynard respectively tells us much about what has gone so profoundly wrong in our times.