Of Course it is: True Story of Assisted Suicide to be Made into a Movie
The purveyors of popular culture never tire of pushing the euthanasia/assisted suicide agenda. We see it in movies, often made from pro-assisted suicide books, e.g., Million Dollar Baby, The Sea Within, One True Thing. Many of the top television dramas have had pro-assisted suicide themes, sometimes more than once, e.g. ER, Law and Order, Star Trek Voyager.
Then there was the fawning made-for-TV-movie made from Ruth Klooster's side of the story about the legal contest that ensued with her son Chip when he prevented her from taking her husband Gerald--who had Alzheimer's disease--to Jack Kevorkian. Chip, for whom I was a spokesperson, was rewarded for saving his father's life by being excoriated in press for "kidnapping" his father and for "imposing" his religious beliefs on his family. The biased reporters repeatedly wrote that Chip was somehow in it for the money, while Ruth was just a compassionate wife. Yet, it was Ruth who sold her story. After it was over, Chip, who was one of the most selfless people I have ever known, just went back to his life. (Gerald died several years later of natural causes.)
Now, in the UK, the story of a woman who went to Switzerland for an assisted suicide will be extolled. How do I know it won't be critical? Puhleeze! But here's a clue from the story:Screenwriter Frank McGuinness said: "As a doctor Anne Turner lived and worked by her principles, and she chose to die by them. This film recognises that rare courage."
What a cliche`. You see, to the arteests, killing yourself in the face of illness is always the courageous enlightened course. Living fully until you die, well where's the uniqueness and specialness in that?
Never underestimate the power of "the movies" to change morality and public attitudes. This is part of the pro euthanasia propaganda war that has been pushing the culture of death for nearly two decades now.These showbiz types are like termites chomping away at the equality of life ethic. And it isn't going to stop any time soon.
Labels: Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide in the Movies. Euthanasia. Popular Culture.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 10:32 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
This from a reader: "Regarding your last article and the mention of books and movies: I assume you have seen "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". What did you think of it?"
That is a different experience entirely, as I understand that the book, at least, written by a man who was totally paralyzed, makes it clear that life is worth living.
Alas, I fear that this book, and movie if it followed the book, are the proverbial exceptions that prove the rule.
A fantastic book; have yet to see the movie. Bauby's tale is amazing and inspirational.
Most severely disabled people (particularly the newly disabled) struggle to adapt to the frighteningly new realities of their lives. Many even consider suicide. Thankfully, most choose to heroically struggle on and affirm life. That said, it is truly regrettable that some have little respect for those who choose not to 'fight on' and for the loved ones who support them.
We live in a democracy that prizes individual freedoms and autonomy. Thus, any external paternalism (be it from the left or the right) that purports to tell me how I must value my own life regardless of condition & circumstance constitutes a tyranny. This board regularly berates the pro-assisted death crowd for such "tyranny" but fails to apply this same standard to its own ideology.
Remember: what you may see as the unqualified respect for human life no matter the condition, others may see as a near-pornographic obsession with preserving human bodily functions via technology, even when a person's brain is incapable of supporting basic conscious awareness, much less any ability for meaningful participation in the immediate world around them (Schiavo et al). That you would sincerely attempt to dissuade individuals from making the choice to proactively end heir lives is acceptable,even laudable; especially those persons with years to live and with functional brains. That anyone would seek to disparage and deny those people who wish not to live on behind the rationalization that you are protecting them from themselves is frightening.
It's time we move away from global pronoucements about quality and sanctity of life and start paying more attention to the details of individual people and specific situations. And spare the slippery slope arguments -- steep paternalistic tyrannies exist on either side of our current moral precipice.
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