Civil Rights Attorney Begs Court To Let Her Die With Dignity

Should the California court grant this terminally ill lawyer's last request?

I am dying within the next months, and I am going to die painfully. I am asking the courts for intervention to issue an order so that a doctor can legally prescribe a medication so that I don’t have to die painfully, and so that every moment before I die, I don’t have to spend afraid and worried about the painful manner in which I’m going to die.

— Civil rights attorney Christy O’Donnell, in an interview with People Magazine, explaining that her terminal adenocarcinoma cancer diagnosis prompted her to file a right-to-die lawsuit. O’Donnell, who has been working with the advocacy group Compassion & Choices to get right-to-die legislation passed, later noted in the interview that “it’s not selfish to not want your doctor to have to go to jail for trying to help you.” The California law that makes physician-assisted suicide a felony was passed in 1873. O’Donnell is currently being represented by O’Melveny & Myers.

(O’Donnell’s lawsuit can be viewed in full on the following page.)

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