Christy O’Donnell is a former lawyer and police office and a single mother. She is also dying.
In 2014, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, and despite treatment, it has spread to her brain. She does not have long to live, and with her time left, she has become an outspoken advocate for the “death with dignity” movement.
There have been similar stories in the media lately, with other terminal patients calling for laws to allow people to choose their own fate when faced with certain death. The desires are always the same-to be allowed to end their own life when the pain and suffering become unbearable.
While Christy does not want to die, as a Christian woman, she is not afraid. She is, however, haunted by the process, and what she may have to endure. She is also worried about her daughter having to suffer in her own way from watching her mother struggle, or come home to find her dead on the floor. Losing a loved one is hard enough; to have to watch them go through a long and painful death process is terrible.
Christy and her daughter have been speaking out, pushing hard for laws to be passed in all 50 states that would allow people to die with dignity. As Christy says, she wants to be allowed to die when she wants, how she wants, where she wants, and with who she wants. If this compassion is given to animals, why not humans, as well?