Dr. Amy Solwey was an in-vitro fertilization specialist who suffered all her life from Alport syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that left her deaf from the time she was born and eventually caused kidney failure.
Background[]
For much of her adult life, Solwey lived in horrible pain and constantly thought about suicide. She started a blog about her experiences, called Catching the Train, which attracted so much popularity that it eventually became a small community dedicated to teaching those who wished to die the best ways to end their lives.
On SVU[]
It was through this community that Solwey met Christina Nerrit, a chronically depressed artist who sought to commit suicide but feared her younger sister would interfere. In April 2004, Solwey agreed to help Nerrit to kill herself by putting a plastic bag over her head, lying her face down, and handcuffing her to the bed. The plan nearly succeeded, but before she could die, Nerrit was found by a pair of maids, who mistook the scene for a rape. Nerrit was subsequently hospitalized, but still wanted to die. Solwey feared Nerrit would lose her nerve, and thus promised to bring two syringes of insulin to her hospital room so that they could die together. Nerrit used the syringe and died shortly after. Solwey, however, did not kill herself that day.
Solwey came to the attention of the Manhattan Special Victims Unit very shortly after Nerrit's death. Though she initially denied having any part in it, she eventually confessed to providing Nerrit with the insulin, but said that she did so only because she truly wished to alleviate Nerrit's pain and support her decision to kill herself. She did not want to plead out, hoping to go on trial and achieve a lasting victory for her cause via jury nullification. The trial ended in a hung jury, but the DA decided to seek retrial because Solwey's failure to fulfill the suicide pact with Nerrit constituted second-degree murder. Still, some good came out of the incident: Solwey met Detective John Munch, who was somewhat sympathetic to her views about suicide, and the two became close; though Munch has never spoken much about it, he grew very fond of her. Munch talks about his own guilt over his own father's suicide, having realized she feels guilty over Christina's suicide. He suggested they try to work through their guilt together. Munch convinces Solwey to plead out for the retrial so that she can live and get a kidney transplant. (SVU: "Painless")
A little over a year later, it was revealed that Solwey was released three months prior due to compassionate release from the state. She fell under the suspicion of the SVU when her name appeared at the top of a list of patients waiting for kidney transplants. She was also suspected of helping to procure organs on the black market. When her connection to Russ Bianco, a black market organ dealer, is discovered, SVU detectives discover Amy finds people for Bianco to sell his kidneys to. Once a buyer is found they have Dr. Robert Swan remove and transplant the organs. It was discovered that she had helped James McGovern, the father of a young boy who needed a kidney transplant for his son, to acquire a kidney illegally. The donor, Robert Swan, died on the table after his kidney was removed. When Munch learned that she was facing the prospect of being removed from the donor list, he tried to save her illegally. In the end, Solwey allowed a kidney that was meant for her to go to the boy, leaving it up to fortune to see if she herself would live or die. (SVU: "Parts")