Fox News host Anna Kooiman suggested on Sunday that a terminal cancer patient in California was "cowardly" for planning to take her own life instead of suffering.
Los Angeles attorney Christy O'Donnell recently told People magazine that doctors gave her six months to live after she was diagnosed with brain cancer, and that's why she was fighting for the right to end her own life at home with her family.
"I think it's a terrible injustice that I don't have the choice to die in the manner I want to and instead that I'm forced to very likely die in protracted pain and I might even die alone," she explained.
On Sunday's edition of Fox & Friends, host Anna Kooiman reminded Fox News contributor Father Jonathan Morris that 29-year-old terminal cancer patient Brittany Maynard had moved to Oregon last year because the state's death with dignity law gave her the right to take her own life.
"And now a single mother in California with terminal cancer is campaigning for the very same right to end her battle at home with her daughter," Kooiman said. "But is this plan, is it a brave plan or a cowardly plan?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that it was cowardly," Morris replied, adding, "I certainly wouldn't say it's brave because you never know what's going on in the soul of that individual person."
According to Morris, Maynard was partially to blame for O'Donnell's desire to take her own life.
"Obviously, here she is citing Brittany, and she remembers that Brittany had this -- quote -- right to kill herself with the assistance of medical personnel," he insisted. "These things affect culture, these laws, these decisions affect culture -- and not for the good."
According to Morris, one of his cancer-stricken friends was "brave right to the end" because she had decided to die naturally even though she suffered.
"And the suffering itself -- while terrible, terrible, terrible -- [her children] have a legacy of a mother who fought to the very end for themselves," he opined.
Co-host Tucker Carlson wondered why O'Donnell was spending the last six months of her life campaigning for the right to die in California.
"Why is it a political issue?" he asked. "It's not hard to kill yourself. Like, you can do these things without trying to force your views on others and to change the law, and to make it into, again, a political spectacle."
Morris asserted that "very strong groups" were using terminally ill patients to advance changes in the law and the culture.
"The second point I wanted to make is when somebody is down like this, all of the neighbors, the friends, the family, that's the time for us to get close to this person, to support them," he continued. "And give them love so that they don't feel like they have to take their lives, that they know that they're loved in a very tragic time for themselves and for their families."
