Right to Die (VICE on HBO: Season 4, Episode 3)

[Applause] [Music] this week on Vice the heated debate surrounding the right to die assisting in the taking of human life is against everything position stand for when they are sitting in this then they can make their own decision for about an hour and 15 minutes but she's gonna head out [Music] so how long have you lived here in this house 15 years in my big house 35 okay Haymitch so what was here before here was a table yeah but tomorrow I lay here in my coffin yeah tomorrow this is your space yeah so the table must go away you up there Cuffy yeah I would love some coffee okay milk sugar milk little milk no milk okay are you nervous at all nope no no no it's all people who come around and have tears and cry and that's difficult to say goodbye to Aunt Sarah and that's what they were here it's this special because I made it myself yeah beautiful it's on my card to send around I'm died you want to see the photo where I bet yeah sure so we have to go here feel so strong here so yeah so glad so this come over my kissed my cousin so first you are how do you call it in English caterpillar yeah and then it's the road you have to go and this are nice flowers but there are always stones the ugly stones so it's about my life when does someone become the butterfly what do you die when you die yeah I worked in a hospice or I've seen many dead people you can always see that the cell pull out they are happy really happy nothing meant nothing matter anymore [Music] in 2002 the Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia since then more than 37,000 people here have ended their lives with a doctor's assistance but here in the US assisted suicide has always been controversial and for years was associated with the polarizing dr. Jack Kevorkian there's a suffering human out there begging for help and the doctors say we can't help you and they walk away you think I'm going to turn away never today the practice is legal in only five states but more states began to consider legalizing assisted suicide when the movement got a new face Brittany Minard I know that it's there when I need it I plan to be surrounded by my immediate family which is my husband and my mother and my stepfather and I will die upstairs in my bedroom that I share with my husband ultimately Menard was able to end her life as she wished but her high profile stories served as a reminder that in most states Americans don't have that right she said her goal was to begin a national conversation about how we handle the end of life shortly after Menards death Cristina Simmons moved to Oregon so she could have the same choice Cristina suffers from ALS a degenerative disease that causes paralysis respiratory failure and is 100% fatal when did you start thinking about the right to die or having a to death I some rittany manners join on Timmy and that just shocked me I had no idea we didn't have that option in California so I'm watching this going Wow because I read what happens in the end a mine is me the only thing you me on the move in the end or I'm off I don't want to know more and I'd certainly know I'm what my kids than that so how old is everyone okay tell me you're eight what's your name Ferguson's five ten Hudson and Madison in a lemon Kristina's husband Teddy a former policeman retired early so that the family could make the move to Oregon before Kristina's disease became too disabling what does Teddy think about your right to choose and even the idea of it he's comin is one a moment and I asked him and they're zooming and the other but he's like I'm right there with you he wouldn't mind an ally in there [Music] what do the kids know about what's going on they know everything or they don't know they don't know yeah they know something is obviously different but they don't know the full scale yeah because I mean I'm 45 years old I can barely you know think about it and handle you know I mean which is why we live the way we live you know getting out of the moment of thinking and about what what's potentially ahead of us what are these in situ pushing my back yeah and we just tell what they need to know from the moment and that's all I can do it my name knowing that Orion is a place you can live where when the time is right you can end your life with medication you mean Cristina absolutely is my best friend and my number one so I get it she doesn't want to sit back and be taken care of and be wipes and be fed she wants to go I'm done it's not getting any better whatever was gonna work ain't working anymore and this is where I draw the line and if you have that ability power and it's it's a calmness and a security like like nothing I'm like nothing else that's a sense of security that most dying Americans aren't granted by their respective states so I went to meet a man who's been helping many of them take matters into their own hands we're way out in the woods in Oregon here to meet Derek Humphry who is the author of final exit he gets calls every day from people who want to kill themselves I was reading about your career you start off as a journalist yeah I was a journalist for 35 years what were you writing about mainly I wrote about race relations immigration police corruption I was always a advocacy journalist so when this subject came upon me I got more and more involved in it Humphrey started the hemlock society which laid the groundwork for Oregon's successful right-to-die campaign and he's written two best-selling books on the subject this was the one that got me into it this is the count of my wife's death she was dying of breast cancer and one day when she was very very ill she said to me help me to die I'm I thought for a moment that I said all right Humphrey found a sympathetic doctor and procured the life-ending drugs that are now the standard method used in Oregon he went on to write the ultimate how-to guide for the terminally ill who want to hasten their death final exit this book is a book full of love in a way 25 years old still sells every day but it's not just a book of love it gives in-depth instructions on different ways you can kill yourself one popular method uses items you can find in your local party store this is helium or you can use nitrogen kind of now only effect if you pulled that down and tightened it you would be dead within five minutes it's not aesthetic you know a plastic bag but if you can't get any other way to to die and you wish to die desperately and this is as good as any and thousands of people have used it do you see this as you're calling this no I would scrap this and I would scrap my book when everybody has lawful access to a doctor assisted death in Arizona one of the 45 states were assisted suicide is illegal we met Howard Glick he suffers from a rare brain disorder called frontal temporal degeneration or FTD as his brain deteriorates Howard is rapidly losing his memory and cognitive abilities and will eventually require constant care when they diagnosed you what did you find out about the disease alright so they diagnosed me and I thought that was a cure when they first mentioned I was happy and I was also happy because I just attempted suicide I mean like every my life was in such chaos and I lost everything and now I could like rebuild but then I found out there's no cure no medicine nothing nothing incurable untreatable unstoppable next step death what do I want to do waste away in a wheelchair not even recognizing my children never mind the cost involved I don't want my children to suffer I contacted final exit and you know a lot of people from my support group I found out from them and they say quick and painless is helium and you breathe it in a few times with a gyro Spanier and Howard is not alone his support group is filled with people who have the same disease and many of them are seeking the same end that's terrible to state that you have to spend their life that you trying to live quality thinking how can you die peacefully I'm tired of fighting the disease that I know I'm not gonna beat and I want to have dignity when I die people will say what a pet who is no longer living a full life it's cruel to let that animal suffer aren't I'm more important than an animal if I don't want to suffer it anymore why do I have to but this is just one support group one disease there are thousands of patients across the country giving more power to the movement and this grassroots energy transformed into action in the most populous state in the country good afternoon and welcome everyone we are here today to announce the introduction of our bill SB one to eight the end of life option Act I am the terminally ill cancer patient I fully support SB 128 and I beg eight assisting in the taking of a human life is against everything physicians stand for and defiles the reputation and meaning of being a physician on behalf of my aunt who was confident and terminally ill and chose to shoot herself to end her suffering I support this bill just to remind you you're not gods god is watching and God will judge you the bill had the support of nearly 70 percent of Californians but the powerful Catholic Church helped to persuade lawmakers to stall it in the legislature that opposition was led by Ned Alessi the church's top strategist in the state why is Catholic leadership so opposed to the bill from our faith perspective there's the reality that God is God and we're not now that's a Catholic perspective that undergirds how we view life and how we view a question like suicide the question for this society right now is a question of public policy there's the dynamics of very very competitive health care system and when you become a burden when you won't need cancer treatment when you need 24-hour care the interests of society and providing those over the course of time will go away that places people in a very vulnerable situation and the mentally ill the disabled those who are poor will be the people who are inappropriately steered to moved in this direction when we caught up with Christi Adana a practicing Christian she had a very direct response Stage four diagnosis and a child that they're leaving our husband that they love then they can make their own decision but until that happens with legislation stalled Christie turned to the courts to win the right to die on our own terms judge after judge denied her request with only months to live Christie was out of options I think it is just a matter of time despite what the headlines were reading a while back I guess don't don't count us out just yet but then just four days later the right to die bill was revived at the State House SB 128 was stalled in the assembly here in California but today at a press conference there's gonna be announcement of a new bill that's addressing end-of-life policies and it's trying to be pushed through in a special session of the assembly this special session on health care financing brought the bill before a new committee and allowed the majority to bypass lawmakers blocking the vote the members of this coalition here today will do everything in their power to ensure that this legislature has been responsive not only to the will of an overwhelming number of Californians but to the people who are counting on us to win the freedom for them to approach the end of life in the way that they choose this time the bill passed in both houses and on October 5th Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law effectively quadrupling the number of Americans with the right to assisted suicide and that has the opposition up in arms if you look at what's emerged in Northern Europe and Belgium and the Netherlands you know you don't put it back in the bag we're going to find longitudinally this will play out society will have less interest in expending money at the end of life the society loses interest because we've offered you your personal choice to take yourself out of this particular moment American opponents have warned for years that legalization would lead to a slippery slope and that might actually be happening in Belgium and the Netherlands where euthanasia is authorized for much more than terminal illnesses man stop open see he's wound up my lady man Darfur his heart a longs to be e to the doctor saying Oh last found earlier and this shod season and they personally shot supe TSS we need beer but is over this book so mu since her suffering is psychological Antoinette would not be eligible for assisted suicide in any American state but in the Netherlands and Belgium doctors have euthanized patients for depression autism anorexia blindness and personality disorders dr. Theo Bohr a medical ethicist used to serve on a review board for Dutch euthanasia cases he's concerned about some of his recent findings in the first years after the euthanasia law in Holland in 2002 the numbers remained stable and even went down a little bit so in 2007 we concluded that our law had done its job very properly however after 2007 the numbers went up with no apparent reason by 15% each year and also the reasons for people having euthanasia have become much wider than they were in the beginning where will we end up will euthanasia become the default way to die for cancer patients will it become one of the preferred options for patients suffering from long term psychiatric illnesses thank you good morning you look very nice hi how are you nice to see you hi soon after I arrived we were joined by two of Antoinette's close friends the last years I've seen her gradually losing herself and I think that someone has to ask the right to choose her own death and the way she's going to die it's okay yeah and I'm just here to support you I don't even think today is a hard day I think today's huh sir your day for celebrate sorry yes it is finally we can let you go well her friends support her decision Antoinette's children object ah spellin stark may hurt her aqua belt a haughty care for tailed about for her hidden issue I have a daughter market with on smoother the tribe wanted say or inhaler Laver and not ik died on Oak Hill have stood before lighting in shall be the heaven not Eastern Unni Bay and imperiled for meaning door it needs in cycle from the community that's had no it incorrectly DF notary Costello its ambassador here in Netherlands all barges from delicious burger and doubtfulness conferred record my diagnosis of Antoinette is that she suffers from a long-standing probably lifelong personality disorder which is the basis of her complaints I met her three times intensely and after this third appointment I reached a conclusion despite his reservations Antoinette's son ultimately decided that he wanted to stop in to say goodbye but he didn't want to be filmed yes I did know you'll come good it's hard for him to smell a couple of hair that I'd had to both sign himself and round guillotine now I'm kind of an cockney we first say Sampras I'm all for Victor tsunami those Disney videos Nate that's co-opted yeah and it comes of any of these yeah I don't think autonomy kanesha yeah yeah nice hit the open ear so the nurse is about to arrive right now we're about an hour and fifteen minutes out shortly afterwards Antoinette's daughter showed up to be with her mother oh yeah and right behind her was dr. Stark yeah this is no joke sense name it been fun of a doctor check him out well overall hood education lacks that she always does certain go she doesn't need a short tunnel is where he aims it that you hate that she oak unlucky she'll and I said her dog for blacks Keisha yeah does it for y'all need to draft is on the lathe afford to set unless you die on Keisha for them harmonious bang lows almost owned you know silver have gotten yes Antonia yeah I'm about to take that you cuts tariff and all these vegetables yeah yeah yeah yeah they toured for dolphin here chief Aaron all makes one feel fun notic new Inca spires at our high from Ohio okay and it comes under certain hey Oakland vegetable on the fish whatever middle oh she gave the moment okay let's do it she was still joyful happy she choose her moment and she got her moment do you think this is a new perspective on her dying to work we should consider as humanity that we did more options in future because when your life is over whether it's physically or psychologically you have the right I think to take control of your own life and death and I think we have seen here a great example of how it can be done assisted suicide laws in the United States are still tightly restricted to specific terminal cases but as more states look to legalize the practice and millions of baby boomers begin to consider end-of-life decisions the debate is only intensifying and what remains unclear is just how far these new laws will go [Music] you you

Channel: VICE

Views: 585,420

Rating: 4.8338833 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, interview, interviews, culture, wild, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, funny, funny videos, journalism, vice guide, vice presents, vice news, vbs.tv, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, Investigative Journalism, euthanasia, end of life, terminally ill, health, End of Life Option Act, vikram gandhi, vice on hbo, hbo, vice news tonight, tonic

Id: xgj2VXltbuI

Length: 28min 19sec (1699 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/FootofGod]

Haven't watched yet, but I think ethically the situation is pretty straightforward in most cases. It would almost be easier to start with the question of "when should a person not be allowed to seek assisted suicide?"

That being said, legally and with lots of fringe cases, it gets ugly, but I feel like it's pretty solvable. I can live with there being some pretty strict guidelines, some paperwork that must be filed, etc to prove that a person meets minimum requirements of soundness of mind, etc.

A lot would probably be taken care of if knowledge of how to harmlessly, foolproofedly kill oneself such as exit bags was made public, as there are a number of ways, such as CO or N that cause no panic and pretty much can't miss. You just go night night and don't wake up.

[u/Jtari-]

Terry Pratchett made a similar documentary

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnu340_terry-pratchett-choosing-to-die_shortfilms

[u/[deleted]]

I feel very strongly that assisted suicide/euthanasia should be 100% legal with minimal restrictions. I think there are potential benefits from a ~6mo period between the decision and the action so as to avoid incredibly rash choices, but I don't think it should require a prescription.

[u/MarineRevenge]

Didn't check the video but I had an old friend who suffered from MS and opted for assisted suicide. He had zero quality of life remaining, he couldn't do anything for himself. When you regress to the physicality of an infant you might be ready for the trip to the other side.

My friend was, and it was hard to see him go. But it was his choice.

[u/BreAKersc2]

That shit's just way too much for me....