Jackie Ferrara has died at age 95, choosing to end her life through medical aid despite being in “good health,” according to her estate and legacy adviser, Tina Hejtmanek.
Ferrara, whose distinctive wood plank sculptures are featured in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection, died on Oct. 22 after traveling to Switzerland to access end-of-life services not available in her home state of New York, PEOPLE reports.
The New York resident decided she was ready to die following two falls in the past year that reinforced her desire not to become dependent on others.
“I don’t want a housekeeper,” Ferrara told the New York Times in a recent interview. “I never wanted anybody. I was married three times. That’s enough.”
To fulfill her wishes, Ferrara traveled to Pegasos, an assisted dying nonprofit organization in Basel, Switzerland, PEOPLE said. Unlike in the United States, Swiss law does not require patients to have a terminal illness to access medically-assisted death, which has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, according to the British organization Dignity in Dying.
While medical aid in dying has been authorized in several U.S. states including California, Colorado, New Jersey and Oregon, Ferrara would not have qualified in America because she was not terminally ill.
The Swiss process differs from euthanasia, which remains illegal, as the patients must administer the life-ending drugs themselves, PEOPLE noted.
This story was written with the assistance of AI.
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