INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Christy O’Donnell: California Judge Dismisses Terminally Ill Single Mother’s Right-To-Die Lawsuit

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 13:53 PST, Jul 26, 2015

Christy O’Donnell’s right-to-die lawsuit will be dismissed by a California judge.

According to People Magazine, the key hearing in Christy O’Donnell’s case took place on her birthday, on Friday, July 24. Christy thought this might just be a good omen, and the judge would honor her request. However, the San Diego Superior Court Judge Gregory Pollack strongly indicated that he planned to dismiss the case, meaning that Christy will not be able to die by physician-assisted suicide. He will be issuing a written decision on Monday, July 27.

Christy, a former LAPD sergeant and trial attorney, was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer that has now spread to her brain, liver, left rib, and L1 vertebrae, according to a previous report by the Inquisitr. She has been undergoing intense rounds of chemotherapy every week, and has been told that the chemo is helping to keep the cancer from spreading to other parts of her body. However, because the treatment is causing neuropathy in her feet and swelling in her legs, she will only be able to do it for a little while longer. This means that she has essentially ran out of treatment options.

O’Donnell made the decision to petition the courts for her right-to-die after the doctors explained to her how she would die. According to them, she would basically drown in her own fluid, and will die a slow and painful death. Her only other option would be to move to Oregon, where Death with Dignity is legal. However, she doesn’t want to uproot her daughter Bailey Donorovich, 21, from their home in California. Therefore, Christy filed the lawsuit with the help of Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group, asking the California courts to grant her her wish to die with the help of medications from her doctor.

Attorneys on both sides agreed that a dismissal was evident, and said that the plaintiffs have vowed to appeal the decision, according to Contra Costa Times News. However, Christy does not believe she will be able to live long enough to make it through the appeals process.

“For any judge, or anyone, or any law or legislator to tell me that my daughter has to watch me die painfully — that’s wrong,” said O’Donnell, who immediately started crying after the hearing. “It’s clearly not the end,” she said. “It just might be the end for me.”

“I’m sad. What can I tell you?” Christy later told People Magazine. “I have no tears left.”

Pollack said it was not the courts place to change the current law that prohibits doctors from assisting patients with suicide.

“You’re asking this court to make new law,” Pollack said. “If new law is made, it should be by the Legislature or by a ballot measure. You can’t get it from a lower level Superior Court judge like me.”

Do you think Christy should have been granted the right-to-die on her own terms? Leave your comments below.

[Photo via video screenshot]

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