A woman who starved herself to death over two months, six years after an accident left her a quadriplegic, wanted to stop being a burden on her family and allow her former boyfriend to move on.
Christina Symanski, from Linden in New Jersey, was 24 when she dived into a shallow pool during a party at her aunt's house on June 4, 2005, and was left paralysed from the shoulders down, the Star Ledger reports.
The art teacher had only six months before started a relationship with the love of her life.
Over the following years Ms Symanski did her best to deal with the situation — learning to paint with her mouth and detailing her struggles on her blog Life; Paralyzed.
In the posts she revealed her father and step-mother blamed her for the accident and for becoming a burden and restricted who she could see.
She also blogged about her boyfriend, Jimmy Morganti, and how they broke up six months after the accident.
"I knew the reality that I might never get better," Ms Symanski wrote. "I couldn't handle the thought of sentencing Jimmy to the hell that had become my life.
"Every moment we had spent together that I was paralyzed, all we could do was cry. Every second killed me. I wanted a better life than I could give to him, for him.
"I loved him too much to be selfish. I had to let him go, even if it killed me, and that's exactly what I did."
But having to rely so much on others and suffering from associated physical problems ranging from agonising phantom pains to bedsores, she eventually chose to end her own life.
In a blog post uploaded by a friend after her death she said: "It's hard for my loved ones to accept, but I feel like my life has come to a point where just living equates to physical and emotional suffering."
After researching euthanasia she decided to follow the example of another quadriplegic she had met at a nursing home who died two weeks after stopping eating.
However unlike him, she lived on for two months after her last meal of sausage stuffing with walnuts, only drinking sips of water and not taking medication.
The 31-year-old died on December 1, 2011, after slipping into a coma.
She had previously said she wanted to be cremated and her ashes mixed with fireworks to be let off on the fourth of July — her birthday.
Mr Morganti, who spent time with Ms Symanski as a friend in her final months, told the Star Ledger he never got over her.
"I couldn't," he said. "I don’t know, maybe now I can.
"I think that’s what Christina wanted for me. I think she believed that, by dying, she was letting me live."
* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or SANE Helpline on 1800 18 SANE (7263).
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