A Casualty of Popular Culture's Pro Assisted Suicide Campaign
We have discussed the suicide proselytizing in the media and popular culture here many times on SHS. But this story hits the nail! A woman with MS named Angela Harrison watched a television drama in which the protagonist went to Switzerland for suicide tourism--and then killed herself. From the story:
Promoting assisted suicide--and its romanticizing in the press and entertainment media--has deadly consequences. Will that lesson be learned? No. The argument will just be made--as it has often before--that she shouldn't have had to do it alone.A multiple sclerosis sufferer killed herself after watching a BBC drama about euthanasia starring Julie Walters, an inquest heard. Angela Harrison, 44, took an overdose of drugs after watching one-off drama 'A Short Stay in Switzerland', screened on January 26. She was rushed to Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Cambridgeshire, and died two days later.
The inquest at Huntingdon law court on Thursday heard how Angela, from Eynesbury had battled depression for many years as a result of her MS. She had spoken frequently to her children about her desire to end her life before her condition became totally debilitating.
But her brother Frank Harrison said she had been planning a holiday on a cruise ship in the days before her overdose. He believed watching the harrowing euthanasia drama was the final straw. Mr Harrison said: 'She had decided a long time ago that she would take her own life when the time came. 'I think what brought it on that night was watching that Julie Walters play on television.' The drama, written by Frank McGuinness, was inspired by the true story of Anne Turner, a retired English doctor who in 2006 decided to take her own life at Dignitas because she could no longer bear to live with supranuclear palsy, an incurable degenerative disease.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 9:58 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Terrible. I'm glad her family is upset and apparently brought the inquest against the BBC.
Wesley, did you blog about the Will Smith drama "Seven Pounds"? Like "Million Dollar Baby", none of the previews or reviews reveal that it is a movie about suicide, they just lure the viewer into the theater and then hit them with propaganda. Plot spoiler: it's about Will Smith committing suicide to donate his organs to "good people" because he is wracked with guilt after killing seven people and his wife in a car accident. (Is it even possible to designate who gets your organs when you die?)
I haven't seen that. Was not aware. No, it isn't ethical to designate your organs when you die. You can, however, donate a kidney or a slice of liver to a designated recipient.
There is more to this story...why was a suicidal woman not being watched more closely by her children? Valid question, yes?
College "goyl": WHAT? No, it is not a valid question. Children shouldn't have to watch out over a parent, let alone a suicidal one. Those kids have been through enough already. And now this. God forbid they saw your comment here.
Adult children do have some responsibility to watch out over their parents who are aged and infirm.
But this woman was still competent to manage her own affairs. Her children had no reason to think she was immediately planning suicide; she was planning a cruise. She lived independently.
If an adult child dropped in on her two or three times a day she could still have done this. Her children are not responsible for what she chose to do.
Susan Peterson
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