Neil Gorsuch's The Future Of Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia

Gorsuch authored the book "The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia" in 2006

In 1997, Oregon became the first state to enact a physician-assisted suicide law

(CNN)Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has frustrated legislators on both sides of the aisle with his refusal to talk specifics on several major issues he could rule on if he 's confirmed. But one matter on which his past writings offer a detailed picture of his views is medical aid in dying, sometimes referred to as physician-assisted suicide.

In 2006, Gorsuch wrote "The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia," a 311-page book in which he "builds a nuanced, novel, and powerful moral and legal argument against legalization," the book proclaims on its back cover. Gorsuch also addressed

On New Year 's Day, she found out that she had brain cancer. After multiple procedures to remove part of the tumor, Maynard learned that it had come back and was more aggressive. Doctors said she had fewer than six months to live.

Brittany Maynard 's true legacy

"I do not want to die. But I am dying," she wrote in an emotional essay for CNN in October 2014. "And I want to die on my own terms."

Because California had not yet legalized medical aid in dying, Maynard and her husband, Dan Diaz, moved to Oregon to utilize the state 's Death With Dignity law.

Oregon was the first state to enact such a law, in 1997. In the 18 years after, 1,545 prescriptions have been written for a lethal dose of medication, of which 991 patients used that prescription to hasten their death, according to a study released this week. Most of those patients, like Maynard, had cancer.

Maynard made a series of videos with Compassion & Choices, a medical aid-in-dying advocacy group.

"I can 't even tell you the amount of relief it provides me to know that I don 't have to die the way that it 's been described to me that my brain tumor would take me on its own," Maynard

Maynard and Diaz had been married just over a year a year when she was diagnosed with cancer. Uprooting their lives in California to move to Oregon was challenging for their entire family.

Like my daughter, all Americans should have the right to die with dignity

"That was one of the worst things, having to leave our home at that time," Diaz told CNN 's Dr. Sanjay Gupta in 2016. "We move to Oregon; Brittany applies for this (lethal) medication; she puts it in the cupboard, and that 's it.

"We continue doing everything we can to extend her life," Diaz said. "The fact that we had that medication, it didn 't change anything with regards to her battling cancer or her fighting. When you have cancer, you fight. That 's what you do."

On the morning of November 1, 2014, Maynard had a small seizure.

"It passed," Diaz said, "so we slept a little bit later that day. ... We had breakfast. Brittany wanted to go for a walk, so we did. We took the dogs -- because, again -- being outdoors,