To Die Forth
Zdravko Jovanovic
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1+1 Canada Abstract
To Die Forth is about human rights and human fears. It is about trust in authority and the power of experts to normalize social practices, to expand and restrict freedoms... Of ten with ironical effect. It is about the loose definition of suffering, of dignity, of worth. It is about human rights hinging upon rhetoric as precipitated by experts and the media. It is about the tension between democratic theory and practice. It is about duty, professional and interpersonal. It is about mortal anxiety and taboo surrounding death - particularly 'unnatural' human interventions. It is
about human subjectivity bleeding into hegemonic portrayals of 'universal causes'. It is about the human will to control destiny. Apparently, this film is about everything except kitchen sinks....
It is about state regulation VS personal liberty. It is about liberality as cause-bearing heroism. It
is about the cleft between what the officialized / specialized authority deems benevolent practice
and what the involved individual claims is best for themselves - in this case the film has to parse
the peculiar naivete of uninformed personal preference and authoritarian enforcement. It is thus
also about the incommunicable nature of pain, the unscalable thresholds of despair and agony,
their self-determination...and therefore it requires not only patient trust in doctors taking their
cure from patient's accounts but also about the hard-wrested task of inter-subjective
communication. And therefore, about the power of words and faith in the counsel they bear in
terms of decisive medical action.
IV Table of Contents
Abstract iv Contextual Introduction 1-3 The Concept 4-7 Death As a Commodity 8 Assisted Suicide and Andrei Haber 9 Defining Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide 9-10 Andrei Haber 10-17 Preliminary Research 18-24 Belgium and The Netherlands 24-31 Switzerland and Dignitas 31-33 Soraya Wernli 33-37 Ludwig A. Minelli 37-39 Blue Oasis 39-49 Cryonics Institute, Michigan, USA 50-53 Art Imitates Life 53-61 Constructing a Vision 61-64 Fear of Life 65
Appendix: Criminal Law and Assisted Suicide in Switzerland 1-6
v Contextual Introduction
The year was 2007. I had recently graduated and moved back to Europe. I was living in
Belgrade, Serbia, working for different artists and art organizations. I was, at the same time, becoming more and more suicidal. I realized that the image of Serbia that I had created during my vacations was not the same Serbia once I lived there. I was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the filmmaking industry. I imagined that after I graduate with a degree in Film and Video and in French Studies, with the focus on literature and linguistics, I would come back to, what I considered my true home, and start a team and start making films. Instead, I encountered an exploitative arts industry which thrived less on creativity and more on the profit motive. What disturbed me the most is that the majority of those who were getting funds to make art were, in one way or another, affiliated with political parties or non-governmental organizations which are actually big money laundering institutions implemented under the premise to help Serbia's integration into European Union. The industry insiders that I met, the artists themselves, the ambassadors of different countries who would frequently attend art galas or art events, the whole scene seemed too contrived and too disingenuous. I consequently reached a point where I simply did not see a reason as to why I have to live. I prayed that my life would be taken away. I was inviting death into my life, but I was too afraid to do it on my own.
November 9th, 2007 was a night that would change my life forever. My prayers were answered. I was involved in a very serious car accident. I was in the front passenger seat.
The driver hit a ditch. The impact caused my body to be jerked forward and because I had
1 a seat belt on, the air from my lungs was pushed out, my right rib cage was broken, causing me to choke. This lasted for approximately 30 seconds until I passed out.
That is when I saw my body on the ground, as I was floating above it. I saw a speck of light on the corner of my left shoulder. Instinctively, I entered the light, and experienced extreme warmth, brightness and a voice that communicated to me telepathically. I did not see who was speaking to me, but the conversation that I had with "the being" was resonating within my head, within my brain, within my very being.
The most intriguing aspect of my experience is that this light knew all about me. I felt acceptance, love and understanding that I had and have never experienced in my life. The light knew that I knew that this is what I actually wanted. It felt embarrassing, but we laughed about it. Everything seemed so right- over there and here. Everything made sense, from what we deem as the most important aspects of our lives to the most trivial issues. In an instant, I knew, for instance, why I was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, why the war happened, why I am a triplet, why I am as tall or as short as I am... The light presented me with a choice: I choose whether I want to stay or go back.
As soon as I was presented with this option, I thought of my family, my friends, what I still wanted to do, how ridiculous it was to worry over 99% of all the things we tend to worry about; one of my thoughts was also, "But, there are so many films I have to make."
I instantaneously started falling, back into my body. I woke up in the hospital.
This experience, no matter how strange it might sound to many, changed me profoundly.
It is only sometime later when I started sharing what happened to me with my family and my friends that I realized that I had what is called a "Near-Death Experience." I was frantically trying to find out what had happened to me; there was no doubt, in my mind,
2 that this experience was real, as real as any other experience that I encounter on a daily basis. As much as my experience convinced me that we are all here, for the lack of a better term, for a reason; that we are here, now, not by chance, I became more and more obsessed with death itself. My near-death encounter left me with a lingering question:
Why are we so afraid of death? If what happens after we die is so beautiful, then why should anyone worry about dying? It is this question that was the initial inspiration of my
Thesis work.
My quest to answer this question, however, not only opened a Pandora's box; the question itself metamorphosed, challenging the very foundation of my work and my personal convictions, thrusting me back into the areas that I had thought I had conquered and mastered, and pushed me to re-evaluate the very root of my inquiry.
3 The Concept
"Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected"
William Plomer (African born English Writer, 1903-1973)
Since the premise of my research would be to focus on question of Why are people afraid of death and dying?, I realized that making a film about near-death experience would not
allow me to confront this question in a way that would provide the concrete answers to this specific question and allow me to analyze this fear separated from those who do not have this fear anymore.
If I were to interview subjects who have had near-death experiences, the focus of the film
would be more on the experience itself, rather then the fear of dying. In addition, from
my research on Near-Death Experience, mainly literature by the pioneer in the field by
the name of Raymond Moody and his book Life After Life, Saved by the Light by
Dannion Brinkley and a variety of other books, which usually encompass the word
"light" or some type of a variation of the word in its title, BBC Documentary titled The
Day I Died, and numerous personal accounts which I found on the internet and youtube,
interviewing the subjects who, like myself, already do not fear death anymore, would be
completely futile.
I kept thinking about people who are suicidal and perhaps making a film about suicide,
yet I was faced with the same problem which is the lack of a concrete answer to the
question "Why do we fear death?" It became very clear and quite absurd to me to make a
film about those who have already resolved that issue in one way or another.
4 It was only while I was taking a course titled "Documentaries Without Borders" in 2008, directed by professor Laurence Green, who is now my Thesis Supervisor, that a much more tangible approach came to my mind. The course was conducted in a way where the class was separated into three groups and the main objective of the course was the completion of three short documentary films. For one of the projects, we were free to make a short film about anything or anyone, as long as the theme is executed in a "think outside of the box" fashion.
I thought of Euthanasia. I spoke with my group members and fellow colleagues, Tony
Lau, Simone Rapisarda and Rozette Ghadery, who agreed that we could cover this issue in an unique, interesting and innovative fashion, since the topic itself is rather intriguing.
I sent an email to a few Euthanasia Groups in Toronto and the next day, to my surprise, the amount of emails that I had received from different groups, individuals, ranging from those who are fighting to legalize Euthanasia in Canada to those who are opposed to
Euthanasia, to journalists investigating this field was enormous.
Our group did not end up making a film about Euthanasia, but it was then that I realized that I wanted to adopt this topic as my thesis. I wante to investigate the fear of death and dying through Euthanasia, especially since many of those who are fighting for its legalization use terms such as "dying with dignity", "dying in peace", and "dying without fear".
At the same time, I was researching another field which allowed me to probe the question of the fear of death even further, by approaching the subject matter from a polar opposite
5 view, which is the view of those who wish to conquer death and be immortal by the
procedure called Cryonic Suspension.
Cryonic Suspension is defined by The Cryonics Institute in Michigan as follows:
The Cryonics Institute offers cryopreservation services and information. As soon as
possible after legal death, a member patient is infused with a substance to prevent ice formation, cooled to a temperature where physical decay essentially stops, and is then
maintained indefinitely in cryostasis (that is, stored in liquid nitrogen). When and if future medical technology allows, our member patients hope to be healed, rejuvenated,
revived, and awakened to a greatly extended life in youthful good health, free from
disease or the aging process, (cryonics.org)
I hoped that by approaching two extreme and opposing sides of the spectrum (if we take
natural death as the parameter), one being that of Euthanasia (those who wish to leave
this reality prematurely) and, on the other hand, of those who, at least in theory, never
wish to leave this reality and thus "cheat" death by the means of cryonic preservation, I
would not only be able to ask the question "Why fear death?" but also expand my
research even more and challenge both sides with questions such as "What is so dire
about death and dying that you wish to expedite and hasten the process?" and "What is so
great about this reality that you wish to be immortal forever?"
6 These two questions are linked directly to my near-death experience and my newfound assertion1 that there is life after death and that this "life" after death is incomparably more beautiful than the reality we experience here on Earth. Therefore, asking those who want to live here, in this reality forever was as crucial as searching for the causes and reasons as to why so many people fear death.
I also hoped that by approaching these two extremes, I could create a dichotomy and arrive at an objective, reasonable middle-ground. I hoped that I would provide a balanced answer to why we are here, why life is worth living but, at the same time, why there is meaning in dying and why it should not be feared. Another important element I embraced is that neither field (Assisted Suicide and Cryonic Suspension) is rooted in any type of religious dogma, thus allowing me to engage dichotomies of life vs death or death vs life while avoiding the whole "Life is a gift from God and we all have a purpose in it" paradigm. Although, I do believe that life is a gift and I do believe in God (I am not an atheist), I certainly do not want to impose any of MY beliefs onto my film audience.
Ideally, the discourse arising from my film should be much more open-ended, pragmatic, meditative and philosophical, rather then sensational or trivial. I knew that if I endorsed any type of religious doctrine, the life and death issues would become much less nuanced and much more simplistic and flimsy, which is what I was trying to avoid. In addition, I personally disagree with a lot of religious strictures and I did not want to make a film claiming that I have certain answers and then attempt to back them up by words written in religious texts and preached in religious circles.
1 The word "assertion" is very crucial when I talk about my Near-Death Experience. I do not wish to claim that what happened to me is what happens to everyone; I also do not want to imply that just because I had the experience which I did, that it somehow has to apply to everyone.
7 Death as a Commodity
In 2008, I applied for a SSHRC grant (which luckily I received), and wrote in my proposal that my research would involve both a national and global investigation of what
I called "an unsettling but nonetheless burgeoning contemporary phenomenon" which reflects the consequences of a highly deregulated globalized economy which makes possible extraordinary and potentially unethical market sectors; that is, the emergence of what some avant-garde entrepreneurs and critical opponents have branded as a new 'death market' consisting of the marketing for and provision of euthanasia, assisted-suicide, and cryogenic preservation as a modern technological means of confronting human mortality.
This inchoate business of providing such controversially accessible services in one country as recourse to their illegality in other countries, makes this market particularly relevant to several other contingent sectors and policy making trends such as bio-tech, bio-ethics, pharmaceutical research, psychiatric care and development, health care regulation, human mortality and property rights, health practitioner liability, international policy integration, amongst other incidental research considerations which stem from the commodification of willful death and corpse preservation. What would make this kind of investigation highly relevant is this particular market on the boundary line between business-innovation and business-ethics is its promising analysis potential for uncharted service territories and conceptual demographics in a globalized economy struggling to stay afloat; not only that, the analysis of these emerging sectors serves as an increasingly vital pulse monitor for contemporary business ethics in a nebulous and often incalculable globalized economic system.
8 Assisted Suicide and Andrei Haber
As I worked through the pre-production and research phase of my documentary, the most
important breakthrough came when a professor of mine, Tereza Barta, summoned me
into her office to share a personal story of a loss of her friend, Andrei Haber. Haber was
born on November 6th, 1945 in Romania, and to quote Professor Barta, "Was murdered
by an organization in Switzerland called "Dignitas" in 2008". This mention of "Dignitas"
was the first time that I heard about the concept of assisted suicide, which is currently
only legal in Switzerland and in the Netherlands. "Dignitas", however, is the only
association in the world that grants assisted suicide to Swiss and non-Swiss citizens. It is
also an association which puts a price tag on its assisting one in committing suicide
service.
Defining Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
What separates euthanasia from assisted suicide is that, though they are both voluntary, in
the case of euthanasia it is a medical professional that injects the person with a lethal dose
of, usually, anesthetics, ceasing the function of the vital organs which ensues in death.
Therefore, euthanasia can be labeled as "voluntary active Euthanasia".
In 2002, Euthanasia became legal in Belgium and the Netherlands. In April of 2009, it
became legal in Luxembourg, making it the third European country where this practice is
9 legal2. In the United States, it is legal in Washington, Oregon, Montana.
(deathwithdignity.org).
In the case of assisted suicide, it is the individual that self-administers/consumes a lethal dose of pentobarbital on their own. In other words, it is the person who wants to die who picks up the cup and drinks the lethal dose, which means that death is self-induced. Those assisting the individual in their suicide are just there to ensure that the person succeeds; if the person does succeed, as I found out through my research, the police are called and the body is taken to the morgue. If they do not succeed, however, they are hospitalized and treated. Assisted suicide is legal in the Netherlands and Switzerland. Euthanasia, however, is not legal in Switzerland3.
Andrei Harber
Andrei Haber, I learned, was a brilliant man; an intellectual who was admired by his peers and his friends alike for his impeccable ability to reason objectively, for his profound and deep knowledge of philosophy, art, history, physics and computer science, and above all, for his genuine compassion and understanding of the human condition and suffering. What is peculiar about Mr. Haber is that here was a man who was not physically or mentally ill, or so it seemed, yet he was granted assisted suicide by
"Dignitas" in Switzerland.
2 International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine Volume 38, 2008, DOI: 10.1007/978-1- 4020-6496-8 3 Assisted suicide and euthanasia in Switzerland: allowing a role for non-physicians; Samia A Hurst, postdoctoral fellowa and Alex Mauron, professor; BMJ. 2003 February 1; 326(7383): 271-273.
10 Professor Barta suggested that I talk to a mutual friend of theirs, Mr. Paul Tauberg, who was Mr. Haber's best friend.
When I met with Paul, I learned that Andrei was a man who was chronically disenchanted with life; although he had tumultuous relationships with women, and started becoming more and more afraid of living alone, Paul advised me that this was not what caused his death.
I learned that Andrei Haber was a man who loved children and animals, due to the fact that he saw them as the only beings that are untainted, honest, sincere and candid. It is this naivete and purity of consciousness that Mr. Haber was desperately trying to preserve throughout his life. His depression stemmed from his view of the world as a vile place, a place where there is too much corruption, too many lies, too much deception, trickery, egotism and not enough sincere, organic altruism, compassion and benevolence. His outlook on life did not stem from arrogance or a superiority complex. On the contrary, he could not reconcile himself with the idea that, at least in his mind, people are not humble, empathetic or, above all, genuinely good. He saw himself as an outcast eternally trapped outside the margins of what humanity willingly or not, accepts as the norm, which, again, to him was a world in which everyone is too calculated, self-absorbed, selfish, cruel, vicious and merciless and where those who are not, who are vulnerable and defenseless are not protected.
Paul shared an anecdote from their youth, illustrating Haber's core principles. In the 60s,
Haber was arrested for having a haircut which was a signature of the Beatles during that period. In the socio-political climate in Romania at the time, this was deemed as unacceptable, rebellious and an act of mischief. While the arrest was not of a serious
11 nature, the police simply wanted to scare the youth, causing more of an inconvenience for those they arrest, the ordeal became much more serious when Haber, while sitting at the police station, witnessed a Roma woman, a lady who sells flowers, being violently attacked for no reason by one of the policeman. Haber's impulse was to get up and physically assault the policeman to defend the woman, which, again, in the political
setting of Romania at the time, was considered a rather serious offence.
When I interviewed Paul later, he told me that at one point, about two months prior to his
suicide, which came as a complete and utter shock to all his friends since he did not share this plan with anyone, Haber said that when he observes the world, he keep thinking,
"Where are all the good people?". In retrospect, this was a rather rhetorical question for
Haber.
Paul told me that at one point Haber was seeing a psychiatrist in Switzerland and was put
on anti-depressants. Paul shared with me that after a while Haber's dilemma was not
sanitized or cured by either the visits to a psychiatrist nor the use of antidepressants. At
one point, when talking with Paul, Haber said, "I am taking this medication now and I do
feel 'better', but / still have no reason to feel better." This statement is crucial in
understanding the complexity of Haber's case. In order to be granted assisted suicide in
Switzerland, it seems as if Haber was smart enough to trick the doctors by reasoning
objectively that he was not depressed. I started to question the possibility that here was a
man who was not clinically depressed and I began to approach his case from the
perspective that this man was not only suicidal because he was miserable or because he
had some type of psychological issue, but that Haber was chronically disillusioned about
life. If he suffered from anything, he suffered from unceasing existential crisis.
12 Haber's genius, in a way, lead to his own demise. He saw through the veil of chimera
that we are all conditioned to believe in and he reached a point where he fully understood
that, although hope is an element that is necessary in anyone's life, he was convinced it
was just an illusion. The suicide email was received by Paul on the day of his suicide and
gave me even more insight into Haber's intricate persona. In the letter, which was
originally written in French4, he writes to Paul:
My dear and honorable Tzeplionok,
Here is my last message to you, since by the time you will be reading this, I will no longer
be alive....
....I am helped in this noble act by an organization (they are in my apartment at this
moment, while I am writing this email), for an Assisted Suicide; they will also take care
of the cremation of my cadaver and the disposal of my ashes into the wind so that
nothing, not a single part of my being, is left in this world in which I came by mistake."
Haber gives some personal instructions to Paul, as to what to tell his ex-wife and ends his
suicide email by saying: That's it! Whether this is pleasant or not, it is in the past. Again, forget me and be happy as soon as possible. Andrei
4 The original suicide email is attached on the next page.
13 Tres estime et honorable Tzeplionok,
Voici un dernier message de moi parce que quand vous serez lu ces mots je ne serai plus vivant. J'ai pris cette decision avril dernier mais j'ai du attends le divorce pars que ma chere femme ne pourrait pas s'emparer de mes richesses. Le divorce a ete declare vers la fin de Janvier et est devenu final a la fin de fevrier.
Je suis aide dans cette noble activite par une organization (ils sont dans mon appartement dans le moment que j'envoie cet e-mail) pour le suicide aide qui s'enchargera aussi avec I'incineration du cadavre et I'etalage des cendres dans I'atmosphere done ne restera pas aucune partie de moi dans ce monde dans lequel je suis arrive par erreur. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Le notaire, Jean Francois de Bourgknecht te contactera. Dans tous cas, voici ses coordonnees:
Me Jean-Francois de Bourgknecht avocat et notaire
18, Bdde Perolles
1701 Fribourg
Switzerland
Tel: +41 (26) 322-2505
e-mail : [email protected] t'en pris de contacter Donca et lui annonce la nouvelle. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Je ne le fais pas moi meme parce qu'elle n'a pas d'e-mail et je ne peux pas discuter telles choses sur le telephone. Aussi je ne peux pas envoyer une lettre avant que je vois mes aides ici et moi toujours ferm dans ma decision et alors (e'est a dire maintenant) serait trop tard.
C'est ca! C'etait agreable ou peut-etre pas, de toute facon, e'est dans le passe. Encore, oublie moi les plus tot possible et soyes hereuses en tant que possible.
Andrei
14 There are various reasons as to why this suicide letter shook me to the very core of my being and why I decided to investigate Haber's case further and set up my film by linking my experience with Haber's. The tone of the letter is not somber. On the contrary, it seems that Haber, finally, is "setting things right". He uses the term "I came into this world by mistake" and "So that nothing of me is left in this world", referring to his existence in this world as a mistake, as an act which should have never happened, and further adds and requests that the remains of his body be disposed in a way that not one trace of his being, his existence is left behind. He also encourages his friends to continue living as if he never existed, but knowing that this would be rather difficult, to continue being happy as soon as possible. He wrote this as a request, just as he requested that all the traces of his existence are complete erased.
I understand that for Haber, the decision to end his life was deeply rooted in who he was, in his core beliefs and in his convictions and I struggled for a very long time to reconcile myself with the possibility that by featuring his story in my documentary, I was against his wishes by resurrecting his name and his memory by making my film. I never met Mr.
Haber personally, but I can relate to him on so many levels and there are times when I feel guilty for not respecting his last wishes.
Reading his suicide note makes me very emotional each time I read it and as I researched his story, it took me about 2 months to gather the courage to read it in the first place.
Throughout the process of making my film, talking with Tereza Barta, Paul Tauberg, acquiring his photographs and video footage of him, I cannot help but feel a strong connection to him. I also have deep and profound sympathy and empathy for both Tereza and Paul. At this point, they have become my friends and have invited me into their lives,
15 sharing this very personal story and their pain with me. I cannot help but feel for them and share their grief.
The relationship of trust between a documentary filmmaker and his subjects is very important and prior to me leaving to shoot in Europe, I was fearful that my objectivity in regards to investigating Haber's story by going to "Dignitas" was already severed. As I kept writing my thoughts in my journal, including the questions I wanted to ask anyone who is affiliated with "Dignitas" that I would interview, I would share this with my cinematographer and editor, Madison Matthews, who would ensure that I was approaching Haber's case, as well as how this association operates, objectively and not from my own outrage that they granted Haber's assisted suicide.
I equally comprehend the daunting burden of being asked to forget about their friend's existence and the inevitable confrontation with the possibility that they might have somehow prevented this incident. Paul admits that when he spoke with Haber about the prospect of his retirement, he was perplexed by Haber's lessez-faire attitude towards this possible future aspect. Paul second-guesses himself now and claims that, "I should have perhaps probed him more [as to why he is talking about it in such an apathetic and indifferent manner]".
What is perhaps the most pivotal element in Haber's tragedy is how I could relate to him as an individual in existential crisis. I understand his point of view. I understand what it is like to feel utterly disillusioned with life. I also vividly remember reaching a point of pure transparency in terms of knowing what I am supposed to be thinking and knowing that I am supposed to hope that better times will come, yet feeling that I was lying to myself. I am saddened by Haber's story not just because he is no longer with us, but perhaps even
16 more because, like me, he reached that disturbing place where ceasing to exist becomes the most logical solution and the answer to all life's conundrums. I intimately know this dark place. It is a state of mind where on conscious and subconscious level one realizes that, though in order to sustain life, we all need a certain dose of hope, of optimism, yet this realization, especially because both hope and optimism relate to the expectation from
"time left", is corroded by the conviction that life's potential, sculpted in a shapeless passage of time yet passed, offers nothing more than, what feels like, a fictitious crutch.
One of the elements I am attempting to discuss in my work indirectly is a brush with death I experienced which brought me back to life. Haber's experience was not life- affirming the way mine was. I came to a conclusion that Haber's story should become the backbone of my film. I realized during my filmmaking process that my film is first and foremost a personal story and that I cannot, no matter how much I might want to, separate myself too much from my film.
17 Preliminary Research
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
Scott Adams
I wanted to record my first meetings with people, so therefore commenced shooting during my research phase, documenting my process and not just my product. Regardless of the fact that most of the individuals and places that I visited in the course of my research and filming did not end up "making the cut", without this journey I would not have come to make the resulting film. Each step, each place, each person that I interviewed led me to another person or another place or another association or organization and therefore helped me arrive at the resulting film. Although I could write a novel about the journey itself, I will keep the details concise. While traveling and interviewing various individuals linked to the documentary's subjects trough euthanasia, assisted suicide and cryonic suspension, most of the information I acquired turned out to be extremely beneficial on a personal level, as well as pivotal in my emerging understanding, which will be further explained in the chapter "Art imitates Life".
My traveling inquiry into euthanasia started in Montreal in 2009 with "L'Association quebecoise pour le droit de mourir dans la dignite"- The Quebecois Association For the
Right to Die With Dignity. One of the main reasons why I wanted to start with this organization is that one of its main members is MP Francine Lalonde- who is a pioneer in regards to the legalization of euthanasia in Canada and who was the first one to introduce the bill C-407, in hopes of legalizing euthanasia in Canada.
18 I also contacted Helene Bolduc and Guy Lamarche. Ms. Bolduc is a former nurse, who is now a member of the The Quebecois Association For the Right to Die With Dignity and
Guy Lamarche, who is Ms. Lalonde's partner. They invited me to a conference that took place in Montreal on April 18, 2009. Both Helene and Guy welcomed me as if we were
old friends. What struck me as rather odd is that the association is rather small; it is a non-profit association and it is mainly run from Ms. Bolduc's house. When I interviewed her, she shared a few interesting elements of Euthanasia. According to Madame Bolduc,
as much as 90% of Canadians do not oppose legalization of Euthanasia. The main
struggle, according to both Ms. Bolduc and Mr. Lamarche, is giving a voice to those who
are terminally ill and who wish to die with dignity (wish to be euthanized), as well as
bringing more public awareness, through the media, to the topic of euthanasia and
educating the public about the key issues. When I asked Madame Bolduc why somebody
like her would dedicate her life and her career to this cause she shared a rather personal
story about her involvement in legalization of euthanasia in Canada. As a nurse, she said,
she witnessed too many people who were terminally ill and how little could be done to
help these people in regards to alleviating their pain. She also shared something rather
interesting, which would become very useful later in my personal life. She said that,
"Unfortunately Euthanasia is still not legal in Canada. What we do in the cases of those
who are terminally ill, especially the elderly, we start giving them morphine. We keep
increasing the dose until it practically becomes lethal".
During the official interview with MP Lalonde, she discussed the law and the bill that she
proposed to the House of Commons of Canada, as well as the struggle to decriminalize
19 Euthanasia in Canada and give the doctors the legal right to euthanize terminally ill patients, with their consent, to release them from their suffering.
Another aspect that was revealed to me is that she is a cancer sufferer. Again, I asked her
why she is personally invested in this issue? Why dedicate her career to this issue? Her
reply was, "I suffer from cancer. I would like to have that option". This is the very first
time that I realized that questioning the professional involvement in these causes would
probably lead to very subjective, personal reasons.
The Conference which I attended was comprised of two doctors, Mr. Bernard Senet from
France, and a Quebecois Doctor, Marcel Boisvert, who spoke about why they believe
euthanasia should be legal not just in Canada, but across the world. The title of the
conference was " The role of a medical practitioner/doctor in aiding the patient(s) to end
their life". Doctor Senet and Doctor Boisvert talked about the necessity of giving the
legal right to medical practitioners to end a patient's life and talked about the steps by
which the doctors would evaluate how and when one would be granted euthanasia. For
instance, they made a distinction between "pain" and "suffering" and stated that only in
cases where medicine and medical tools available today were insufficient not eliminate a
patient's suffering would that patient become eligible to access euthanasia. In addition,
they affirmed that the patient would have to be lucid, that the level of their "lucidity"
would be determined by the medical practitioner and there needed to be clinical certainty
that person is dying of a terminal illness.
I began thinking that I needed to talk to someone from the counter perspective, someone
who believes that euthanasia should not be legalized in Canada, or anywhere else. My
next stop was a meeting with Mr. Alex Schadenberg of the "Euthanasia Prevention
20 Coallition" who talked about alternatives to euthanasia for the terminally ill, including palliative care. His reason for fighting the legalization of euthanasia, I found out, is linked
to his son's condition. He is physically challenged and in Schadenberg's mind, for
Canadian society to deem his son's life as a life with less dignity is completely absurd.
He also told me about the slippery slope once euthanasia is legalized and suggested I go
to Ottawa and talk with Doctor Jose Pereira, who, in his words "is an expert in palliative
care".
I contacted Dr. Pereira and found out that he is the head of the Division of Palliative Care
at the University of Ottawa and Medical Chief of the Palliative Care programs at Bruyere
Continuing Care and the Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa.
Health Canada defines Palliative Care as follows:
Palliative care is an approach to care for people who are living with a life-threatening
illness, no matter how old they are. The focus of care is on achieving comfort and
ensuring respect for the person nearing death and maximizing quality of life for the patient, family and loved ones.
Palliative care addresses different aspects of end-of-life care by:
* managing pain and other symptoms
* providing social, psychological, cultural, emotional, spiritual and practical support
21 * supporting caregivers
* providing support for bereavement
Palliative care may also be called hospice palliative care or end-of-life care. In some cases, these terms are used interchangeably or in combination. In others, they refer to different types of services or providers.
The field of palliative and end-of-life care includes providing care services directly to the patient, family and loved ones. It also includes the education and training of care providers, research, surveillance and advocacy. Individuals, families, communities, the private sector and governments all play important roles in the field of palliative and end- of-life care, (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hcs-sss/palliat/index-eng.php)
When I interviewed him, Pereira told me that he worked in Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal and that he is very well acquainted with both assisted suicide and euthanasia, but that there is a dangerous slippery slope within systems which legalize these practices. Within the 26 Cantons in Switzerland, where he worked from 2005 until
2008, Pereira revealed to me that there is an alarming lack of palliative care for anyone with an incurable, progressive illness which consequently results in patients who would, if they had access to palliative care, chose that alternative, as opposed to opting for euthanasia.
22 Secondly, Pereira talked about the Netherlands and Switzerland, countries where assisted
suicide is legal, and that the data suggests that since the legalization of assisted suicide in
these countries, the number of people asking for and receiving either euthanasia, which is
legal in the Netherlands, but not Switzerland, or assisted suicide, which is legal in both
countries, has not risen. This data is being used to argue that there is no slippery slope.
Dr. Pereira, however, claims that from his experience in Luzerne, Switzerland, as the
prevalence of support for assisted suicide began to rise, the alternative palliative care
services, were being less and less supported, mainly financially, and therefore less and
less available.
Pereira mentioned Dignitas and another assisted suicide organization called "Exit", which
are actively fighting to allow anyone, regardless of their health status, for whatever
reason, to be able to be able to access assisted suicide as a service. I immediately thought
of Haber. Pereira additionally told me about a patient of his who was suffering from
terminal lung cancer. This man had no family that could take care of him. This man did
not want assisted suicide, yet due to the fact that he had no alternatives, there was an
involuntary pressure that arose for him to request assisted suicide.
Dr. Pereira believes in improving palliative care, investing more resources and research
into palliative care and he left me with a fairly ominous statement, proclaiming that,
"Here, at the Bruyere Continuing Care and The Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa, we have 30
beds, but at the moment, we desperately need 80 beds".
Health Care is very expensive and, in particular, the treatment the terminally ill, is
anything but cheap, so I was tempted to ask to what extent are some individuals really
making the decision to have access to active euthanasia for themselves, devoid of the
23 societal pressure that the best solution is to "die with dignity, without fear" as opposed to
"suffering without the possibility of curing their disease?"
I realized that the only way I would truly find a real response to, what now began to form as a cluster of numerous questions and concerns, is if I go to countries like Switzerland,
Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands- where assisted suicide and/or euthanasia are legal and embark on a much more thorough investigation about these issues.
Belgium and The Netherlands
figure 2.0 Shooting at the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium.
Prior to leaving Canada, The Belgian Association for the Right to Die With Dignity staff
contacted me and I managed to secure permission to interview Doctor M. Englert from
Brussels, a retired medical doctor, a professor at the University of Brussels, who is
currently on the Federal Commission For Control and Evaluation of Euthanasia and
personally oversees every single case of euthanasia in Belgium.
24 Although Dr.Englert is Flemish and speaks fluent English, he demanded and insisted that we speak in French. When I met him I realized that there was a certain arrogance about him. For instance, he did not want to meet or speak with my cinematographer/editor
Madison Matthews most likely because in Dr.Englert's mind he is a) "just" a cameraman and b) he does not speak French. Madison felt so uncomfortable that he wanted to shoot our interview from the outside the house, through the big, clear windows of Dr.Englert's home office.
I personally find, coming from Europe, that there is a certain elitism that is attached to
French language. I often compare it to the ridiculous associations some people have in
North America when they hear a British accent. There are many who I have met in my life, living in Canada and United States, who claim that no matter what one says in a
British accent, it just sounds more eloquent and more smart, as opposed to the variations of the North American accents found in Canada and the United States.
I cannot prove that this is why Dr. Englert decided that we speak in French (speaking in
English would make the editing process so much easier, with no need for copious translations), but my gut feeling was telling me that he was one of those Europeans who consider French as the language of the intellectual elite.
Dr. Englert shared a few important details about how euthanasia is regulated in Belgium.
I learned that in order for an individual to be granted euthanasia, they have to fall into a certain criteria:
1. The individual must be physically and terminally ill.
25 2. The individual has to be lucid and demand Euthanasia of their own accord, devoid
of any pressure from either the family members and/or friends and/or health care
system, their doctor(s) and health care providers.
3. It is preferable if there is historic evidence (in the medical file and/or through
patient's testimony), that the individual has expressed their will to receive
euthanasia not just in the present, but documented over a certain period of time.
As for his role as a member of the Federal Commission For Control and Evaluation of
Euthanasia, Englert told me that, in each case, when a physician agrees to perform euthanasia on a patient, there are two letters that are submitted to the committee. One letter is a summary of the patient's illness and the details of when euthanasia was performed. The second letter, I was told, contains details of who the doctor is, where they work and a detailed patient's file. It is only opened and investigated further if there are inconsistencies found in the first letter. These inconsistencies usually pertain to the lack of proof beyond any doubt that the individual requesting Euthanasia was, indeed, terminally ill and in pain and suffering and that the physician acted altruistically and did not pressure the patient into requesting euthanasia for alternative motives and agendas. I was, however, reassured that there were only two instances in his career where there needed to be a further investigation into the case and the second letter opened and that normally everything was resolved quite quickly.
When I started asking Dr. Englert about how they were dealing with terminally ill patients, who were suffering and in pain, prior to the legalization of Euthanasia in
Belgium in 2002, what he told me came as a complete shock. He stated, quite
26 nonchalantly and candidly that, "Until euthanasia was legalized in Belgium in 2002, what we used to do is give sedating cocktails to those who were in pain or those we deemed would not survive for too long and we would perform palliative sedation". I remembered that Madame Bolduc of the Quebec Association for the Right to Die With Dignity told me something similar in Montreal.
In addition, and again, to my great shock, he stated that, "These cocktails were pretty inadequate due to the fact that we were never really sure whether the person was in a coma and was not experiencing any type of pain and discomfort anymore, or whether they were simply in a state of deep sleep/sedation." His concern, it became clear to me, was linked more to the necessity of the legalization of euthanasia, rather then the fact that these lethal cocktails were being administered for years prior to the official legalization of euthanasia.
In other words, Englert spoke of palliative sedation, as a necessity when euthanasia is illegal. Its illegality was a nuisance to the health care establishment, and Englert emphasized this, rather than focusing on the chilling and disturbing facts that these sedating cocktails were being administered without the consent of a patient. I asked
Englert what his commission does in regards to palliative sedation and he kept constantly correcting me that I should not mix "oranges and apples" when I talk about euthanasia and palliative sedation. In his interview, he reminded me that euthanasia is legal and therefore there are certain freedoms and restrictions that come with the law that applies to this practice. This is what he (now) deals with. Palliative Sedation falls under the umbrella of "general health care". He said, "When we talk about palliative sedation, who
27 am I, or for that matter, who is anyone to question another doctor/colleague when it comes to the treatment they deem as appropriate for their patient?"
It sounded to me like he was equating palliative sedation and the decision of a doctor to perform such an act on a patient to a doctor deciding which antibiotic a patient should use when they get sick. To him, there was no need whatsoever to question or investigate the cases of palliative sedation and that to this day, this practice is implemented on a daily basis. He reminded me again that palliative care should not be confused with euthanasia and that they are two very separate fields.
The topic of palliative sedation began to fascinate me more and I came across a man by the name of Henk Reitsema, who lives in the Netherlands. He invited me to come to and
interview him in his small town and share his story about his grandfather who, he told me
"was murdered by the doctors". I was positively surprised by Henk's eloquence and knowledge of the issue. He told me that in 1995, his grandfather, who he loved very
much, had an aneurism in his leg and went to a doctor because he wanted help with this problem and because he was in pain. His grandfather was sedated due to his pain and
suffering and the medical staff decided not to feed him or give him fluids, which resulted
in his death. This happened without his grandfather, or the family, ever being advised that
the medical staff decided that his condition was so dire that he would not survive and
because he was already sedated, he could not legally refuse or condone his treatment.
What started as a treatment for his grandfather's pain, ended up in hastening his death.
Ultimately, it was the medical staff that decided that this was in the best interest of his
grandfather, without any consent from any family members. Reitsema said that his family
28 members were desperately trying to give him some water with a straw, but were
forbidden to do so.
He shared with me statistics, which reminded me of my conversation with Dr. Pereira in
Ottawa, in regards to the slippery slope. He showed me numerous academic papers which
indicated that since the legalization of Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands,
the number of people demanding one of these services has not risen; what has risen,
however, is the number of palliative sedation cases.
Tony Seldon writes in his article titled Incidence of euthanasia in the Netherlands falls as
that of palliative sedation rises, published in the British Medical Journal in May of 2007
that,
"New government sponsored research that evaluated the effect of the 2002 euthanasia
law shows that the number of cases of euthanasia fell from 3500 (2.6% of deaths) in 2001
to 2325 (1.7%) in 2005. By contrast the number of cases of palliative sedation rose from
8500 (5.6%) to 9700 (7.1%). The number of requests for euthanasia and assisted suicide fell from 9700 to 8400" (Seldon 1075)5.
He further argues that this is due to the fact that,
Dutch law requires doctors to report euthanasia to committees that assess whether the
legal requirements have been met. Patients have to be experiencing hopeless and
unbearable suffering and to have made a voluntary request for euthanasia, and a second
opinion has to have been found, while that the practice of palliative sedation was simply
British Medical Journal, v.334(7603); May 26,2007
29 more convenient since it did not have to be subjected to the same regulatory process and scrutiny as the cases of Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide (Seldon 1075).
It was only after I met Madame Marquand, an 86 year old Belgian lady, suffering from
Parkinson's, that I realized the issue of euthanasia and involuntary euthanasia is a much broader subject and a subject which I would like to investigate. It deserves its own documentary. In addition, my conversation with Madame Marquand, although very interesting and insightful, proved to me that tackling the question of "fear of death" through Euthanasia was perhaps not the best way to do it.
^Ki^ ™**^^ rii tS-3
figure 2.1: Madison Matthews, Madame Marquand and myself
First, euthanasia is regulated by strict laws and applies strictly to those who are terminally ill and are in great pain and suffering. Second, the issue is as controversial and as broad, as abortion, for instance. Again, in order to talk about euthanasia and conduct fair and just research, I concluded that I would need to make a film solely about this issue and
30 other issues related to it. Third, when it comes to Assisted Suicide and Dignitas, in particular, and cryonic suspension, these two fields are much more radical and extreme,
since, in the case of Dignitas, they argue that anyone, for whatever reason, should have the right to assisted suicide, and in both cases the services are not provided by general health care, and, therefore, not institutionalized and regulated on the same level as
euthanasia. For anyone to be granted euthanasia, the person must be a citizen of the
country where it is legal, whereas Dignitas and cryonic suspension offer their services for
money to any client, from anywhere.
Switzerland and Dignitas
Prior to leaving for Zurich, Switzerland to meet with Mr. Ludwig Minelli, the founder of
Dignitas, I had conducted research on the association and Mr.Minelli himself. There is
no shortage of newspaper articles which depict Mr.Minelli as a dishonest, greedy, corrupt
lunatic, some going even as far as comparing him to Hitler on certain blogs and websites
which allow anonymous commentaries on the articles.
The photographs, which would accompany many of these newspapers, depicted Mr.
Minelli as a sardonic and sinister individual, some even, with the use of lighting,
portraying him as what could best be described as diabolical.
31 figure 3.0 Mr. Minelli as depicted in mainstream media. The picture on the right is not a photoshop; lighting was used in order to create an effect in which his glasses created a shadow, creating an illusion of an evil and sinister expression. Source: google images.
My initial perception of Mr. Minelli is that he is a very influential, powerful individual and I thought that it would be extremely hard to penetrate into Dignitas. I presumed that everything was handled with secrecy and that I might even get thrown out by his bodyguards for asking the questions I wanted to ask.
My apprehension was further heightened when I got in touch with Mr. Minelli via email and he requested that I tell him the exact date and time of my arrival in Zurich. He claimed he wanted to meet me as soon as I arrived and my first impression was that he wanted to question and probe me before he would even allow me to sit down and talk to him, let alone come and visit the facility. Moreover, since I wanted to keep the story in my documentary as objective and balanced as possible, assuming that Mr. Minelli would probably give me a one-sided account of why assisted suicide and Dignitas are beneficial to the public, I knew that I would have to get in touch with an insider of Dignitas, perhaps a doctor who used to work for "Dignitas" and had quit, or a staff member who would be able to provide me with a contrasting point of view that differs from that of Mr. Minelli.
32 Through my research, I found out that there is a staff member, indeed, who used to work for Dignitas and was repulsed by how the association was operating and decided not only to quit, but to work undercover for the police to expose what "Dignitas" was doing and how they were conducting their services.
Soraya Wernli
Soraya Wernli is a nurse who worked for Dignitas for two and a half years, until 2005. In numerous news outlets, mainly newspapers, I found interviews in which she claimed that what Mr. Minelli was doing was pure profiteering. Minelli, according to Soraya, was exploiting certain members of Dignitas who wished to be aided in their assisted suicide by stealing from them and that he was dumping the urns and the ashes of those who received the procedure into the Lake Zurich. There were also articles and comments claiming that Wernli was mentally ill and that she was seeking revenge for being fired from Dignitas and that she was spreading lies.
I tried contacting a vast number of newspapers, from The DailyMail in the United
Kingdom, to The Telegraph" and The Times of London. None of these news organizations replied and as I was desperately waiting to get in touch with Wernli, at least via email, I decided one day to literally go to the Swiss Phone Directory online and type in her name. One element which helped me was that I found out in one of the articles that her husband's name is Kurt, so as I typed in "Soraya and Kurt Wernli", luckily a number appeared on my monitor.
33 I could not know whether this was, indeed, THE Soraya Wernli for whom I was looking, but nonetheless I decided to give her a call. A man answered and I asked if he spoke
English, to which he replied with a yes. I introduced myself, I told him about my Masters in Fine Arts, my research on euthanasia and assisted suicide and that I would like to get in touch with Soraya. He was very pleasant and told me that Soraya, his wife, does not speak English, only German and French. Due to the fact that they are often contacted by different media outlets for interviews, the best thing would be for me to send them an email, explaining again who I was and what my intent was and, also, to include my picture- which I did. They agreed that I could come to their house and interview Soraya.
When I arrived at their home on the outskirts of Zurich to interview Wernli, she appeared exhausted. At first, both Soraya and Kurt, I felt, were rather uncomfortably suspicious of me, but once they saw my humble York University film gear and that I arrived only with my cinematographer, Madison Matthews, they relaxed. Prior to handing them the consent forms6 to sign before our official interview, I notified them of my intention to speak with
Mr. Minelli and that he would also be notified of my meeting with them. They did not object. Soraya took us to her backyard, pulled out some plastic chairs and a table, while
Kurt brought us refreshments.
Wernli also possessed a big box full of papers and insisted that she can prove and back up everything that she says; "people are claiming I am fabricating".
First, Wernli informed me that she is not against assisted suicide. She said that Mr.
Minelli, initially, had great ideas and that his intentions were good, but that in the process of promoting Dignitas, he became not only greedy (she even uses the term "a money-
In my consent form, I give each and every subject in my film a chance to withdraw from the research and their appearance in the film, even after the film is made and released.
34 making machine" when describing Dignitas), but wanted to become a sort of a "poster child" for assisted suicide, a pioneer fighting for the legalization and implementation of assisted suicide all over the world. Furthermore, she claims that it is Minelli's own fear of death driving him, because she said that he is very close to death and that is one of the reasons why he is such a strong proponent of assisted suicide.
It is Minelli's ego, she said, that has gotten in the way. She said that he became so obsessed with assisted suicide and the idea of committing suicide by pentobarbital, that this fixation lead to a mania. Wernli further stated that his fundamental wish was for, one
day, a statue to be erected in his name, as a hero who was the first one to fight for the
legalization of assisted suicide worldwide.
I learned later that Minelli actually never personally experienced or witnessed an assisted
suicide being performed. What led Wernli to not only abandon the association, but to go
to the police and try to prove that Dignitas was not abiding by the law, was a case of a
lady named Martha Hauschildt, from Germany.Wernli claims that Ms. Hauschildt was a
very wealthy woman. Mr. Minelli knew this very well. When Hauschildt first arrived in
Zurich to access Dignita's services, Wernli decided to contact her children and ask them
if they knew that their mother was about to die. The children were shocked to find out
what was happening and intervened to prevent their mother from committing suicide.
About three months later, Wernli says, Minelli contacted Hauschildt and personally went
to Germany, with a big truck, to pick her up and also collect some of her very expensive
personal belongings, such as Persian carpets and other valuable assets, this time, making
sure that her children could not be notified. Hauschildt commited suicide at Dignitas and
Minelli claims that it was her personal and individual right to do what she wanted to do.
35 Wernli shared with me another story of a young man whose assisted suicide did not go as planned, it took about seventy hours for him to die. What was supposed to be a painless, and dignified procedure, turned out to be a horrifying and agonizing experience for this young man.
As for the ashes being thrown into Lake Zurich, she showed me numerous papers and reports, documenting complaints from people who live near the lake and the fact that plaques and even little peaces of bones would be left scattered around the shores of the lake.
Wernli told me that Mr. Minelli has various accounts at different banks, under different names and that the reason why he does his own finances and accounting is because he is laundering money.
Wernli also objects to the fact that Dignitas grants assisted suicide very rapidly. She claims that many doctors refuse or have started refusing to work with Mr. Minelli, because he would literally allow people to come to Zurich and access assisted suicide services on the same day, not taking into account their medical background or giving them a chance to fully commit to their decision. Wernli showed me a document, which we filmed, which shows the names of people, the date on which they became official
"members" of Dignitas and the dates when their lives ended at the facility. In all cases, these events occurred on the same date.
Furthermore, she told me that Mr. Minelli started experimenting with helium and providing helium to replace the lethal oral injection of pentobarbital, since helium is much more readily available and the approval of a doctor and a pharmacist can be by-
36 passed altogether. Although, Minelli would later admit that he does not object to helium being used, when I asked Wernli whether the procedure is comfortable, she said definitely not. She told me of a Swiss judges who was presented with a videotape of one of the people who committed suicide by inhaling helium with the help of Dignitas. The judge had to turn the tape off after 30 seconds, due to the fact that it was extremely hard to watch this procedure, which was anything but peaceful and therefore could not be classified as "dying with dignity", which is one of the main objectives of Dignitas.
Minelli denies that dying by helium is uncomfortable and that it is just as pleasant as
dying with barbituates.
After working undercover for the police, Wernli became responsible for the
implementation of videotaping every single case of assisted suicide by Dignitas. Each
tape of each case would be handed over to the police. This was not a requirement prior to
her involvement with the police. She is also perhaps the reason why, now, none of the
assisted suicide personnel employed by Dignitas are in any type of medical field and why
they have to sign a confidentiality agreement, making Dignitas seem even more secretive.
Ludwig A.Minelli
All my preconceptions of Minelli quickly dispersed once I finally met the man, at his
house, outside of Zurich. I was, at that point, fully prepared to meet a monster, but
instead, an elderly, and rather charismatic man came outside with a big smile and greeted
me in perfect Serbo-Croatian (I later learned that he spends all his summers at the
37 Adriatic Sea coast in Croatia). I noticed his hearing aid and that there were no bodyguards, no escorts, just him.
We went into an elevator which took us to the upper floor of his house, where I met his wife. I noticed that he had a Bosnian coffee-serving set on his wall. This is a Turkish coffee pot that is usually made of copper, (which we call dzezva) with little cups, made from the same metal called "Fildzan"(plural: Fildzani). This coffee set is one of the most recognizable and cherished ethnographic "postcard" relics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and are not only used to drink coffee , but also as souvenirs. When I saw this Bosnian artifact, I was prompted to think that Minelli had conducted his own thorough research about me and knew exactly how to lure me into liking him.
figure 4.0 A traditional Turkish/Bosnian coffee serving shop in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Minelli gave Madison and I a tour of his house. The backyard was filled with different
kinds of fruit, vegetables and herbs that Minelli grows himself. He proceeded to show me
his vast collection of tea pots, referring to himself jokingly as a "tea-ologian". In the
basement of his beautiful house, he showed me his collection of legal documents, the
room that used to be his office when he was a lawyer and a collection of original film
38 prints. He also showed me a small room, which he calls a "survival department" (which I found rather ironic- a man who is "in the business of providing death", being scared of some apocalyptic World War 3, securing a "survival department"). The room was filled with a variety of teas, home-made jams, marmalades and honey. As much as I was in awe, I was also starting to become more and more paranoid. The Serbo-Croatian welcome, the Bosnian coffee serving set, his film collection, and now teas and honey
(which I love), all these familiar items seemed too coincidental and I suspected I was being manipulated. When he offered to give me a bottle of traditional Croatian honey, the
type of honey I personally consider to be of the highest grade and quality, I took a
moment at one point and whispered into my cinematographer Madison's ear: "Did you
contact him? Did you tell him about me behind my back?" which needles to say Madison
denied found absurdly hilarious. "Why is this man presenting me with all the things that I
love so much?", I thought. "He couldn't have googled this information about me".
Minelli invited Madison and I to the opening of Digintas' new facility, called "Blue
Oasis" the next day.
Blue Oasis
Blue Oasis is a facility which was purchased by Dignitas from an astrologer, who lived at
the house. The facility and its surroundings reminded me of all the reasons one might
conjure up continue to live. It took me a while to fathom the idea that this is where people
come to die.
39 .fr^: i * •• X #
ft .••• "...>*• -iS.* .* V:'-'
I ^3^'% figure 5.0 Madison Matthews, my cinematographer filming the scenery at "Blue Oasis". Myself in the right picture, filming the facility.
When we arrived at Blue Oasis, I was immediately struck by a beautiful pond filled with gold fish. At the entrance of the facility, there is a small food court, owned by a Croatian lady, a friend of Minelli's.
figure 5.1 Gold fish pond at the "Blue Oasis"
40 I was surprised when Minelli, while preparing for the dinner that would take place later that day, introducing the members to their new work-place, allowed me to roam around the property, go inside the house and film whatever I wished.
The house has several rooms, but only two rooms with two beds are used for
"accompaniments". The term "accompaniments" is used by Dignitas to define the act of two of its staff members being present while the client drinks the potent cocktail and commits suicide.
As I laid in one of the beds in a room, lights on the ceiling mimicking the constellation of
Scorpio, I thought of Haber. I knew that this was not the place where he died, but as I put my head on the pillow and relaxed, watching the beautiful lights, I tried to think about what he must have thought prior to drinking the lethal cocktail. I kept unsuccessfully trying to put myself in the position of being one of the clients of Dignitas, who was about to commit suicide. All I could think about was, "This is just a bed, like any other" and "I would want these lights to be on if I were to commit suicide here".
Prior to the gathering of the staff, none of whom are qualified medical practitioners, I had a chance to talk to Minelli and interview him. I asked him to introduce himself and tell me why he is fighting for the legalization of assisted suicide in Switzerland. Minelli told me that he is a lawyer, and worked as a lawyer for a number of years, until he became involved in what he calls "the last human right"- assisted suicide. He added that his early ambitions were not to be a lawyer, but an actor. This seemingly naive and anecdotal statement is one of the most interesting and important revelations hroughout my interviews with him. Minelli stated that all his life he always wanted to be an actor, but that a well-known, successful German actor told him that if he cannot be the first and the
41 best, he must chose another field in which he can. This statement brought me back to what Soraya had told me about him wanting to have a statue in his name, being admired and acknowledged forever, going into history books, perhaps, as the pioneer liberating people and giving them their "last human right".
When I asked him about Andrei Haber, I was at first surprised that he actually remembered his case so well. I asked him how can a person, who was most likely depressed, be granted assisted suicide. Minelli responded by saying that Dignitas stands for "Dying with Dignity" as well as, "Living with Dignity" and that by lifting the taboo of suicide, they are helping more people live, rather then die. He was, however, unable to provide me with any empirical data supporting this claim. Minelli argued that anyone who had been depressed for 15-20 years had endured enough time to realize that they did not want to live in a state of depression anymore. He further stated that even if a person suffers from a mental disorder, it does not automatically and necessarily mean that they do not have the "capacity of discernment" and further made, what I thought was a rather cheap argument, that mental illness should be regarded with the same respect and severity as physical illness. Minelli also stated clearly that he would personally allow anyone, including people with bi-polar disorder, for instance, to be granted assisted suicide. For him, in his words, the question whether to live or whether to die is a very simple question. It is a far more complicated decision when one has to choose one's car insurance. In Minelli's mind, as long as the person desires to die, they should be allowed to die, and die in a way which is not gruesome, but peaceful.
When we touched on the subject of freedom, or more precisely, human rights, his standpoint is that freedom of choice, taken to its most absolute extreme, carries with it the
42 freedom to make mistakes, including the mistake to have an assisted suicide from which one can never recover. To him, there is no "in between". If the state protects you from yourself, your human rights are violated and your liberty chained down by laws which claims to transcend your ability to choose properly for yourself in the sphere of mortal agency. He showed me a caricature in which a woman (representing justice) is hanged by a group of people. Underneath this caricature, in French, it says "The Justice Is Done!"
(La justice est faite!).
As for the details of Dignitas' assisted suicide procedure itself, Minelli said that it is much better if people come there to do it, instead of jumping in front of locomotives and endangering lives of anyone on the train, or jumping off of a building and forever mentally scarring someone walking by, witnessing this act.
Minelli further explained that in order for someone to be granted assisted suicide at
Dignitas, first they would have to become a member of the association (I kept referring to
Dignitas as "an organization" and he kept correcting me that they are not an organization, but rather a non-profit association), then they would then need the approval from their doctor, who would also assess that the person has the "capacity of discernment" to make that decision for themselves. Due to the fact that euthanasia (or physician-assisted suicide) is illegal in Switzerland, the person would have to physically take the lethal dose themselves7. A pharmacist prescribes a dose of 15 grams of pentobarbital, which is later crushed and mixed with water or juice and ingested by the individual. Once the dose is
7 In cases in which a person is not capable of physically lifting the cup, they can be aided by whoever is there to accompany them, by putting the cup, with a straw, in their hands but they would have to physically drink the contents of the cup themselves.
43 taken, the person quickly loses consciousness and the respiratory arrest follows approximately 30 minutes after, which results in death.
I asked Minelli if Dignitas had ever had to deal with a person who failed to die from this lethal medication, and he assured me that in the very near future, Dignitas will assist their
1000th member and that all of the members, thus far, have definitely succeeded in ending their life, without any complications.
I thought of what Paul had told me about Haber and how he brilliantly fooled his doctor, how he bullied them with his impeccable abilities to reason objectively, that a) he was not depressed and b) that he planned to commit suicide, and if they did not allow him to do it by the means of assisted suicide at Dignitas, he would have to jump in front of a train and traumatize the life of the conductor for the rest of his life and cause a lot more trouble for everyone left behind. I realized that Haber had done enough research to know precisely what to say to the doctors in order to be granted 15 grams of pentobarbital.
Minelli told me that article 115 of the Swiss Penal Code clearly makes the practice of assisted suicide legal, as long as the individual(s) aiding the person in committing this act do not have any personal, hidden motives or could gain from the death of that person in any way. I read Article 115 (see appendix) and I found a section within this article which is very relevant to Haber's case:
A person is presumed to have capacity to act reasonably, unless he or she is deemed not to have such capacity because he or she is a child, suffers from a mental illness, mental infirmity, drunkenness or a similar condition. (Civil Code, Art 16: Legal capacity (Urteilsfahigkeit))
Again, I realize now why it was crucial for Haber to convince his doctors that he is not, indeed, depressed or suffering from a mental disorder.
44 When I challenged Minelli about the price that the members have to pay in order to receive Dignitas' assisted suicide service, he said that the association does not profit and that the funds (roughly $10,000 CAN) are used for the preparation of accompaniment, the cremation of the body and its disposal.
When I asked Minelli about why he is the one who does all Dignitas' financial work, he said that it is due to the fact that because they are a non-profit association, they simply do not have the money to pay for an accountant, and that he is doing this on a voluntary basis. I am not sure whether he noticed on my face that I did not believe this statement at all.
Perhaps Minelli's biggest blunder came when I asked him about Wernli's allegations that
Dignitas is dumping the urns and ashes of their members into Lake Zurich and her claim that Dignitas is a "money-making machine", his response was that she used to work for them up until 2005 and that she does not know how they have functioned and operated since. What I found really shocking in Minelli's explanation is that if Dignitas was conducting services which were not in accordance with the Swiss law up until 2005, and just because they are not doing this anymore, or have altered how they provide their services in the present, that certainly does not mean that they should not be held responsible for what was happening prior to the year 2005.
Minelli's statements, the manner in which he replied to these accusations, however, was sufficient for me because it suggested that he is not necessarily refuting Wernli's claims.
Minelli is a highly intelligent, knowledgeable and eloquent person, and I am convinced
45 that if there was not some truth to Wernli's claims, he would have refuted them rather then avoiding them.
Meeting the Dignitas staff was a surprisingly pleasant experience. They were all very open to talk to me and Madison and what I learned is that most of them are actually quite spiritual. None of them are in the medical field of any sort, which is logical due to the fact that, again, euthanasia (physician-assisted suicide) is not legal in Switzerland. All of them firmly believe that what they are doing is a just cause and that they are helping those who wish to leave this world in a dignified and peaceful way and most of them told me that they are tired of Minelli being attacked by different media outlets.
If I regret one thing about making this film, it is not conducting official, on camera, interviews with some of the staff members of Dignitas I met that day.
Before I left Switzerland, I wanted to go to Fribourg, where Haber's friends put his ashes to rest in a cemetery. Finding his grave was not easy. I had spoken with one of the officials on the telephone prior to leaving for Fribourg and she had notified me that his plaque is in aisle 3. I found his grave site in a completely different section of the cemetery.
I used to question why Haber's friends went against his wishes and chose not to disperse his ashes somewhere, so that nothing is left of him, but I understood, once I was standing above his gravesite that they did this because they loved and respected him profoundly. It was really only then that it struck me that Haber, the man whose story I was investigating for this film, is, indeed, dead. His whole story became that much more real to me, in that
Swiss cemetery, in that moment.
46 Mikhail Soloviev and Cryonic Suspension
I gained access to Mike Soloviev via a local Cryonic Suspension support group in
Toronto. He is originally from Russia and has a PhD in Biology of Aging. Soloviev has
already preserved his cat, Dina, by the means of cryonic suspension and is planning to preserve his body once he dies. He told me that there are three Cryonic Suspension
organizations in the world: The Cryonic Suspension Institute in Michigan, USA, ALCOR
in Arizona, USA and KrioRus in Moscow, Russia.
Soloviev told me that even as a young child, he did not understand why mortals die and
that the main reason why he would want to be revived one day is to space-travel. We do
not have the technological means to achieve this during his lifetime. A member of the
Cryonics Institute in Michigan, Soloviev referred me to Ben Best, who was elected as the
president of the Cryonics Institute in Michigan in 2003.
The service offered by the Institute costs about $28,000 which would be paid in cash at
the time of the person's death. Another option is available, and that is to get a life
insurance policy that would pay for the service upon one's death. They suggest that this
option is better, because it includes the cost of what they call "Standby". Cryonics team
can be on alert by the bedside to perform rapid cooling and cardiopulmonary support
upon pronouncement of death and this can be paid for by larger life insurance policies.
On their website, they also advise potential members that, "Because of possible future
price increases — or additional future services requiring additional payments — it is
47 prudent to buy more insurance than the absolute minimum required, at least $200,000."
(cryonics.org).
The Institute describes the procedure as follow:
Cryonics is a technique intended to hopefully save lives and greatly extend lifespan. It involves cooling legally-dead people to liquid nitrogen temperature where physical decay essentially stops, in the hope that future technologically advanced scientific procedures will someday be able to revive them and restore them to youth and good health. A person held in such a state is said to be a "cryopreserved patient", because we do not regard the cryopreservedperson as being really "dead", (cryonics.org)
When I spoke with some of the members of KrioRus, for instance, they advised me that they also offer what is called "neurocryopreservation", which entails the cryopreservation
(and thus the removal) of the person's head, due to the fact that what is contained in the brain is the most important aspect of preserving "oneself and that the future might give a person options such as cloning, or even transferring neurotransmitters onto a computer program. Sure enough, I received an invitation from Ben Best, inviting me to come to
Michigan, to their facility8
Original invitation is included on the next page. The reason why I am including the original invitation is that it invites me to attend their conference. Once I was there, I was not able to attend or film the conference.
48 r Cryonics Institute ftf h
24355 Sorrentino Court; Clinton Township, MI 48035 www.cryonics.org Phone (586) 791-5961 Fax (586) 792-7062 Email [email protected] ll-September-2009
To Whom It May Concern:
On Sunday, September 27 the Cryonics Institute will be holding our Annual General Meeting (AGM) at our main facility at 24355 Sorrentino Court in Clinton Township, Michigan.
As President of the Cryonics Institute I am extending an invitation to Zdravko Jovanovic from York University (completing his MFA in Film Production) as well as to Mr. Jovanovic's cinematographer (Madison Matthews from York University) to allow them to conduct research, interview and film the occasion (i.e.the AGM).
They are also welcome to attend the informal dinner being held on the previous Saturday evening.
No money will be exchanged for the filming or interviews insofar as this is an exercise in academic training.
Cordially,
Ben Best, President Cryonics Institute
49 Cryonics Institute Michigan, USA
At the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, instead of being greeted by Ben Best, who I thought was going to be my host, they appointed a man by the name of Andy to accommodate us. Ben Best, once I found him, just nodded his head, acknowledging that I was there, but he did not seem too interested in me or my presence there. Andy, on the other hand, gave me an extensive tour of the facility. He told me that the facility itself is protected from a possible nuclear attack. The facility itself is fairly large. There are numerous white cylinders in which they keep up to 6 bodies, at the temperature of 196 degrees below zero, turned up-side-down, because, again, I was advised that it is the head that they are the most concerned with preserving.
Andy performs routine checks every day by measuring the temperature of each cylinder.
I noticed that there are wooden boxes around the cylinders and that some of them contain flowers and cards; Andy revealed to me that certain family members view this as the
"resting place" of their loved one(s), but should not confuse this with a graveyard or a gravesite, because, in his words, "this is, obviously, just a temporary state until they are one day awakened".
figure 6.0 White cylinders where the bodies are preserved at the Cryonics Institute, MI
50 When I saw a smaller cylinder, I was told that this is where they keep the animals. I wondered if Soloviev's cat was in that cylinder. Andy, to my surprise, opened the cylinder, but I could not see anything, other then a frozen cloud. I tried to blow in it, to get a peak at these animals, but was quickly warned that my breath could cause crystals to form and damage the preservation.
Andy took me to another room, a typical surgical operating room. This, he advised me, is where, once the body is brought in, they perform the suspension. Furthermore, there was a section at the facility where they keep metal coffins, specially designed to be airtight, preventing further decay of the cadaver.
Once those present gathered for their annual general meeting at the Institute, I was perplexed to see little children running around with shirts bearing slogans such as,
"Cryonics is way COOL". Most of the staff, other then Andy, at the Institute, were quite arrogant and openly condescending. When I interviewed the founder of the Institute, Mr.
Robert Ettinger, the staff was coming in and out of the room, purposely walking between the tight space separating where Ettinger was sitting and where Madison and I were filming.
When Ettinger was a physics teacher, in the 1960s, he wrote and published a book titled
The Quest for Immortality. When I asked him why and how he got interested in the field of Cryonics and cryopreservation he told me about a science fiction story which he read when he was a teenager by Neil R. Jones titled "The Jameson Satellite" and published in
1931. I cringed inside when I heard that this whole concept, this whole institute was based on some science fiction story from the 1930s. I also quickly arrived at the
51 conclusion that whether Cryonic Suspension is just a science-fiction, pseudoscience or not, the question of whether they will be able to successfully revive any of the individuals in those cylinders is not as relevant as the underlying reasons as to why anyone would want to go through this procedure in hopes of being revived one day. There were members who wanted to talk to me and I was given a small, barren room in which I could interview them. I hoped they would be able to answer this central question.
One of the members told me that the reason he wants to be immortal is because, he wants to be a doctor, a pianist, even a filmmaker, "a president of the Universe"... and that there is not enough time in one's lifetime to achieve all these things he drams of achieving.
I equated his desire to wear different hats to the desire of those who accumulate material wealth in hopes that, somehow, material possessions will make their lives more fulfilling and meaningful. Another member told me that there is not enough time to do all the world traveling he wishes to do. He would also like to experience jumping from a plane, bungee jumping, climbing Mount Everest, etc. and cryogenic suspension will preserve those chances for him. When I asked him why he does embark on these adventures now, instead of sitting here with me, attending these meetings, he paused and said that he has a wife and two cats to take care of. When I asked him if his wife is a member, he said that she is not due to the fact that she is a Jahowa's Witness and that she believes in the afterlife. This statement gave me even more reason to ask him again, "Then why not do it now? Instead of paying for cryopreservation, why don't you use this money to travel and do these things now? Moreover, if or when you are awakened in the future, your wife, your cats are not going to be there. So, instead of wishing for a second or third life, for
52 immortality, why not do it now?" After another pause he said, "That is a very good question. I do not have an answer to that".
There was an air of apprehension that I sensed in these cryonics members; they volunteered to give me their testimonies. I am quite certain that it was not due to the fact that there was a camera present. I believe that their fear is linked to both the big question whether what they are deciding to do is actually feasible, but I also got a sense that they are not the happiest individuals in this world and that somehow, by attaining immortality, they will resolve all the issues, fears that they face in the present. These are the aspects that I wanted to cover in my documentary.
Life Imitates Art
"Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of
this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier
and more pleasant way to our journey's end."
Frangois de la Rochefoucauld
There is a series of unfortunate events which made the process of putting my film together much harder, mainly because of events that transpired in my family.
On October 24th, 2009, my father had a very serious heart attack. I was the one who accompanied him to the hospital. As we waited for him to be admitted, in the hallway, his body was literally jumping up and down on the stretcher. I had never seen my father cry
53 ever due to physical discomfort. I knew that this was very serious. As we waited in the hall, it was the following words that made me panic. He said, in Serbian, "This is unbearable. I want to be delivered from this. I want to go". It was only then that I was overcome with emotions, as I tried to comfort him. I was told to leave the emergency room and wait outside.
I come from a very tight-knit family. My father, my mother, my grandmother, my sister and brother (we are triplets), they are my life. They are my greatest support. They are inseparable parts of me.
The stress of my father's heart attack triggered my sister to go into labor. She was already
9 months pregnant. As my father was stabilized at St.Mary's Hospital in Kitchener-
Waterloo, I rushed to Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, where my sister was already being given an epidural to cope with the pain of delivering her child. My brother-in-law was too scared to be next to her and it was her wish that I stay next to her, since we are very close siblings. After approximately 14 hours, my sister gave birth to my niece,
Katarina, a healthy baby-girl.
In a matter of less then 48 hours, I went from thinking that my father was on the brink of death, to celebrating a new life, the birth of my niece.
figure 6.0. My niece's birth. In the picture: My sister with my niece, our friend Vanja Kilibarda and myself.
54 When I saw my niece for the first time, I was crying with joy, but at the same time I was thinking about the numerous challenges she will face during her lifetime, one of them being the loss of a grandfather who would love her just as much as he loves us. I thought,
"At the very beginning of your life, you might already be faced with the death of a loved one. Is that how we will remember your birth?" One of the things my sister said to her daughter, in all the ecstasy, confusion and happiness, was, You are not an immigrant.
Again, as we are born, we are already thinking about the challenges that life might bring and about those that we hope to avoid.
The big blow came ten days after my father's operation, after my sister was released from the hospital. Just as the family situation was settling down, my grandmother, who has always seemed like my second mother, and has always lived with us, suffered a near-fatal congestive heart-failure, followed by the leakage of the blood at the base of her brain, followed by a stroke. Although, I decided to exclude the whole concept of euthanasia and palliative care and palliative sedation from my final version of my thesis film, had I not learned what I did from Madame Bolduc from The Quebecois Association For the Right to Die With Dignity, or from Henk Reitsema in Netherlands, or from Doctor Englert from
Brussels, Belgium, I am convinced that my grandmother would not be here with us today.
I also realized the extent to which it is crucial for anyone to want to live in order to live.
When my grandmother was in Intensive Care, she was stable. I kept asking her if she was in any pain and she kept reassuring me that she was not in pain. I advised her to let me know if there is even the remotest sensation in her chest/abdomen area. By this point, my
55 grandmother was on heparin, nitroglycerin and a diuretic, with a catheter extracting fluid from her body.
I was advised by the main nurse to go home, eat something and come back after two hours. After I came back, what I saw was awful. My grandmother's hospital gown was up to her neck, she was completely exposed. The nurses did not even bother to close the curtains. Her neck was in a weird position, her tongue was sticking out and I thought that she had died. The nurse came to me and said, "Thank Goodness you are here!" I asked her what was wrong with my grandmother, thinking that she had suffered another heart attack. The nurse had taken it upon herself to give my grandmother morphine. The nurse did not discuss this with me or any members of my family. I started thinking that what was happening to my grandmother seemed a lot like palliative sedation.
When I asked her why she decided to give her such a potent opiate/analgesic, her reply to me was, "She seemed to be in discomfort." Naturally, I asked, "What do you mean by
'discomfort'? It is a broad term. Please, elaborate." Her reply was that she woke up and started saying something in our language. I was speechless. My grandmother had fallen asleep while I sat next to her. The nurse told me to go home after long vigils and sleepless nights worrying. After a while, when my grandmother woke up and saw that I was not there, she started calling my name, and for her family, and this was the grounds on which the nurse decided to administer morphine. I was outraged. I was shocked. I was scared.
The worst thing is, I honestly believe that the nurse thought that she was doing the right thing. Yet, with all the alternatives, if she was indeed in pain, why such a strong drug?
Why morphine?
56 Because I was in the midst of making my film and since my grandmother expressed that
she wants to fight and live, and since I am her power of attorney, from that point forward
I requested that I am given all her test results, prescribed drugs that had been
administered, records of all medications, etc.
I was unsure about what precisely the nurse was trying to do, especially since the doctor,
when my grandmother was brought into the ER, told me that she is "gone". The doctor
told me to go home and "prepare"(for her funeral). I begged them to do something, so the
doctors put her on Heparin, a very strong anti-coagulant, since this was presented to me
as her only hope, but also an option which would just prolong her life for about three
days. They wanted to make me believe that her death was inevitable. The way they
looked at me, the way they spoke to me, made me feel guilty for the care I wanted for my
grandmother. I was made to feel as if I am some kind of a monster for allowing the
continuation of my grandmother's suffering, when, in their opinion, it was just a matter of
hours until her suffering and life would end.
The words that my grandmother told me when she was in the emergency room kept
resonating in my mind: "I am ready and willing to fight". As long as there is something
that can be done to save her life, I thought, is worth doing. At least we will know that we
tried everything.
My grandmother lost her lucidity. This was probably the hardest phase to endure. I felt
that not only was I losing her physically, but that I was losing her, her personality, her
spirit, who she is. I was now the one being asked by the medical staff the same or similar
questions I was asking some of my subjects in the making of my film. "What do you do
57 in the worst case scenario? Do you exhaust all the resources available or do you take matters into your own hands and die in peace, without pain?"
I kept thinking, "What if my grandmother never regains back her lucidity?" "What if we are able to help her physically, but not cure her lack of lucidity? What if she relapses, goes into a coma, and has to be put on artificial life-support? Would I pull the plug? At what point? Would that actually be the right, noble, compassionate thing to do?"
How do you ask a person who is not lucid, "Grandma, what do you wish to be done if you never regain your lucidity? If forever, you do not know who you are, where you are, what is happening around you?" It was up to me to make these decisions for her, if worse came to worse. And there were times when I questioned whether I was selfish. To what extent am I taking her wellbeing into consideration and to what extent is it just for me, and my not wanting to lose my grandmother, someone who I love unconditionally, someone whose love will never be replaced in a world where it seems there is so little love? There was really only one factor which helped me resolve these haunting questions.
She still recognized me. She knew who I was, she would call me by name. That is the only anchor in that situation which gave me hope and the strength to keep trying to help her. At least, I thought, there is this small element which proves that she is not completely
(mentally) "gone". After a few days, the matters became even more dire when she started vomiting food and her drugs (she suffers from diabetes and hypertension).
58 figure 6.1. My grandmother and I in the hospital.
We fell into a typical daily scenario: the nurses would bring the plate with the food, leave it with her, come back after about half an hour and take the tray away- intact- because, again, she was not lucid and was not eating. She had no capacity to realize that the food was in front of her, and, on her own, open the little water cup, take off the cover from the plate and take the cutlery to feed herself. Furthermore, when I tried giving her this food, she did not want it. I know she was starving, but for some reason, she could not chew any food or swallow it down. My grandmother loves yogurt. I bought the best organic yogurt
I could find, rich in pro-biotic cultures. It is easy to swallow, it digests and absorbs rapidly. I would feed her like a child. Each spoonful of this yogurt that she would ingest and her body would absorb, at the time, was more valuable, more precious then anything in the world.
59 My family never left her side. If I had to go home to shower and change, my twin brother or my mother would replace me. We would take turns and we never left her alone. I am very saddened to say that the treatment she received, mainly from the nurses, who I started to feel were mostly hostile and incompetent when it came to my grandmother's situation. My grandmother does not speak English. They knew that. Yet, they would yell at her as if somehow the tone of their voices would magically make my grandmother understand English.
I finally understood why Dr. Pereira was fighting and advocating so hard for palliative care. I finally understood the slippery slope. I finally understood how the elderly are very often treated. I also, now, understood fully how the system starts regarding those who are weak, vulnerable and sick, as if the best solution for them is to die with dignity by giving them sedatives and opiates and analgesics, such as morphine.
Francois de la Rochefoucauld says, "Hope is the last thing that dies". I thought of Andrei
Haber. What if hope dies before one dies? Is this saying true? And how tragic and sad it would be to truly lose all hope.
I am happy to say that on June 28, 2011 my grandmother will turn 84. Due to all the stress and the turmoil I went through, I was unfortunately diagnosed with Vitiligo (also known as, Leukoderma), a disorder which affect's one's skin pigment, leaving the body in white, milky patches.
I do not wish to discuss my illness in detail as I am still dealing with its onset. There is no known cure and I was told that in my case, there is no doubt that it was caused by stress.
When I was first officially diagnosed with Vitiligo, what they kept telling me that this is an incurable skin disorder, I thought, "Well, I still have Mr. Minelli's number".
60 Re-watching my documentary footage, during the film editing stage has helped me regain my hope again. It is during the editing stages, working with Madison, that I reached a catharsis. I realized that during this whole process I was really dealing with the fear of life, rather then any fear of death. My subjects, including myself, we fear what the future might or might not bring.
Constructing a Vision
Before undertaking this project, I saw the 2007 documentary film titled "Suicide Tourist" by John Zaritsky in which he follows a Canadian couple to Zurich, where they were assisted in commiting suicide. Although the husband suffered from heart disease, the wife was perfectly healthy. Both were granted assisted suicide by Ludwig Minelli.
I found this film too one-sided, advocating heavily for assisted suicide and sensationalistic. To me, it was kind of a modern "Romeo and Juliette", romanticizing the idea of a perfectly healthy woman being assisted in her suicide, along with her husband by Dignitas. I found it rather insulting that the film did not take into account the grief of those left behind as a natural process when someone loses a loved one. This woman should have received counseling and therapy instead of a cup with 15 grams of pentobarbital, as means to deal with her husband's illness and death.
Zaritsky's film also made me realize that I did not feel the need to actually film the act of a person committing suicide by pentobarbital, and Zartisky's footage seemed purely sensationalistic and exploitative. I thought, "Why film somebody falling asleep",
61 because, this is, in essence, how one dies by 15 grams of pentobarbital. Unless I had footage of a person struggling to die by this means and/or unless I could somehow find footage of Haber's death, there would be no point in me putting this moment on the screen in my documentary. In essence, I wanted to be informative about the history and procedures of cryonic suspension and assisted suicide. I want to offer a meditative investigation into the fear of life as related to the time that we have left.
I was faced with a series of obstacles in the editing stages of making my film. I had over fifty hours of footage, mostly of subjects being interviewed, so I had to think about ways to avoid just showing talking heads, which would make my film quite bland and dull.
One of the ways which Madison and I resolved this issue was by using the supplementary documentary footage. For instance, with Minelli, we used the footage of him showing me around his house, while he is talking.
I also wanted to include a series of allegories and metaphors, which would be complimentary to what is being explored and depicted in the film. I was at one point asked by my Supervisor, Professor Laurence Green, "Why is a young man, like yourself, interested so much in death?" To me the answer was quite clear, I had a near-death experience and I had a brush with death, but I understood at that point that I would have to talk about my incident, especially because of the overlap between my personal story, my death wish and that of Andrei Haber.
I hoped to portray Minelli in such a way that the viewer comes to the realization that he is just a human being and that he, whether one agrees with him or not, has a reasoning system and that he is not some lunatic ranting and raving about assisted suicide based on utterly irrational rhetoric.
62 The narration in the film is meant to serve as an informative tool, but there are numerous parts where I wanted the voice-over to be more poetic, abstract enough to give space for the viewer to be able to ponder the themes in the film, while still providing the necessary details about my experience and my thought process.
The re-enactment of Haber's scenes is meant to present him almost like a shadow so that the viewer knows this is not actual footage of Haber and a reminder that he is no longer with us. The actual photographs and footage of Haber are meant to supplement this shadow.
I wanted to shoot the re-enactment footage in a respectful and tasteful way. I decided to
shoot under very low light, focusing mainly on Haber's signature glasses. There is a shot of Haber, while Paul is talking about him feeling alone, where he is sitting by an ice-rink
and I stylized one of the shots via the use of fish-eye technique in post-production. This technique not only allowed me to put the spectator in a position where they are sensing
Haber's reality from his perspective, through his glasses, but also, in a way, since the
image is obscured, from his state of mind, suggesting his state just prior to his death.
There are a number of leitmotifs in the film. The specks of light, out of focus, are a reoccurring visual element in the film which are meant to be suggestive of light against
darkness, illustrating hope.
Haber's re-enactment, the specks of light in the background, some of which are
flickering, further highlight his feeling of isolation. I imagine that for him time stopped,
and there was only one fixation, his fixation with leaving this world, yet the world, his
surroundings, were still in motion.
63 I chose a piece of music called "Sparkler" by an artist called Jeans Wilder. Although, we had a composer for the film, Nick Stoning, this one song, when I heard it for the very
first time, evoked the feelings of nostalgia, loneliness and sadness that I associate with
Haber' s story.
I tried to evoke my car accident through repeated shots of roadways and the glowing
clock intercut with me in the car.
I also used elements of an installation which I had done under the supervision of
professor John Greyson and in collaboration with my colleague Tony Lau and decided
that "spagetti cutting" was appropriate in order to illustrate my confusion about what had
happened to me during that near-death experience.
64 Fear of Life
The subtext of my film is the fear of life, as it relates to time as a burden. Whether I talk about Haber (his fear was, really, of being a misunderstood outcast and of being alone).
Soloviev or any other member of the Cryonics crowd, theirs too, is a fear of life, also related to time. The fear that there is not enough time in one lifetime to reach happiness, to do so many things one wants to do, or my own fear of life without my family members, the same themes of mortality resonate. For those who wish to leave this reality prematurely, the time left is unbearable, while for those who wish to be immortal, time is only insufficient. In both cases, the individuals feel and believe that in order to conquer this fear, one must conquer time itself and to do that, the impossible, one must truly embrace life and overcome the fear of life.
65 66 Bibliography
Articles
International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine Volume 38, 2008, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020- 6496-8
Seldon, Tony. "Incidence of Euthanasia in the Netherlands Falls As That of Palliative Sedation Rises." British Medical Journal, v. 334 (May 26, 2007): 7603. Web. February 20, 2011.
Websites
Deathwithdignity.org Cryonics.org hc-sc.gc.ca/index-eng.php
Films
The Suicide Tourist. Dir. John Zaritsky. Point Gray Pictures Inc, 2007. Film. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1968. Film. Criminal Law and Assisted Suicide in Switzerland
Hearing with the Select Committee on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally III Bill, House of Lords
Zurich, 3 February 2005
Prof. Dr. Christian Schwarzenegger Sarah J. Summers (LLB)
University of Zurich Faculty of Law
Ramistr. 74/17 8001 Zurich Tel. +41 1 634 30 65; Fax +41 1 634 43 99 Email: [email protected] www. rwi. unizh. ch/schwarzenegger Schwarzenegger & Summers Criminal law and Assisted Suicide in Switzerland February 2005
1. General comment
It is important to note that the structure of the law of homicide in Switzerland, which is part of the Penal Code,' differs substantially from that in Scotland or England and Wales.
In the legal systems of the UK, the 'intentional' killing of another person will result in a mur der conviction unless there are grounds to justify or excuse the actions of the perpetrator. In Switzerland, however, intentional killing is not synonymous with murder. A person who in tentionally kills another person will be guilty of vorsatzliche Totung (intentional killing) and this will only be increased to murder (Qualifizierung) if it can be shown that the perpetrator acted with a 'reprehensible motive'. In certain circumstances the perpetrator will be guilty of a lesser degree of killing (Privilegierung).
Provisions regarding homicide in Switzerland
Aqgravptrq circurritancss ^J Art 111" Art. 117: Intentional killing Negligent Killing
Art. 113 Manslaughter >/l--'/ Ait 114 Killing on request \ r--''' Art 116. Infanticide ^
v"~Jx-Ari.ilfcMuriier
Provisions relating to Suicide Art 115. Inciting and a&uting someone to commit suicide
Crnnm.il intention Criminal negligence
In view of the fact that there is no accurate English version of the Swiss Criminal Code, a translation of the relevant provisions is set out below.
Art 111: Intentional killing (Vorsatzliche Totung)
A person who intentionally kills another person will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment (Zuchthaus)2 of at least 5 years, provided that none of special conditions set out in the fol lowing articles apply.
1 Swiss Penal Code (SR 311 0), 21 December 1937, in force since 1 January 1942, the section on homicide was amended by Federal Law of 23 June 1989, in force since 1 January 1990. 2 According to the French tradition the Swiss Penal Code distinguishes three types of imprisonment Zuchthaus (penitentiary), Gefangnis (prison), Haft (detention). Today, the only practical relevance of this distinction re-
University of Zurich, Faculty of Law 2 Schwarzenegger & Summers Criminal law and Assisted Suicide m Switzerland February 2005
Art 112: Murder (Mord)
If the perpetrator acts in a particularly unscrupulous manner, particularly if the motive, aim of the crime or the manner in which it was carried out was especially reprehensible, the punish ment is either life imprisonment (Zuchthaus) or imprisonment (Zuchthaus) of not less than 10 years.
Art 113: Manslaughter3 (Totschlag)
If the perpetrator acts out of an intense emotion which under the circumstances can be ex cused, or under considerable psychological strain, the punishment is imprisonment (Zuch thaus) of up to 10 years or imprisonment (Gefangnis) of between one and five years.
Art 114: Killing on request (Totung aufVerlangen)
A person who, for decent reasons, especially compassion, kills a person on the basis of his or her serious and insistent request, will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment (Gefangnis).4
Art 115: Inciting and assisting someone to commit suicide (Verleitung und Beihilfe zum Selbstmord)
A person who, for selfish reasons, incites someone to commit suicide or who assists that per son in doing so will, if the suicide was carried out or attempted, be sentenced to a term of im prisonment (Zuchthaus) of up to 5 years or a term of imprisonment (Gefangnis).5
Art 116: Infanticide (Kindestbtung)
A mother who kills her child during birth or afterwards, provided that she is still under the influence of the birth, will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment (Gefangnis)6
Art 117: Negligent Killing7 (fahrlassige Totung)
A person who negligently causes the death of another person will be sentenced either to a term of imprisonment (Gefangnis) or to a fine.8
gards the maximum length of imprisonment In the case of intentional killing the minimum is 5 years, the maxi mum 20 years of imprisonment 3 Similar to 'voluntary' culpable homicide/ manslaughter 4 In this case the minimum punishment is 3 days of imprisonment {Gefangnis), the maximum is 3 years of im prisonment (Gefangnis) 5 In this case the minimum punishment is 3 days of imprisonment (Gefangnis), the maximum is 5 years of im prisonment (Zuchthaus) 6 In this case the minimum punishment is 3 days of imprisonment (Gefangnis), the maximum is 3 years of im prisonment (Gefangnis) 7 Similar to 'involuntary' culpable homicide/ manslaughter
University of Zurich, Faculty of Law 3 Schwarzenegger & Summers Criminal law and Assisted Suicide in Switzerland February 2005
In addition the following provisions have relevance in the context of assisted suicide.
Civil Code, Art 16: Legal capacity {Urteilsfahigkeit)
A person is presumed to have capacity to act reasonably, unless he or she is deemed not to have such capacity because he or she is a child, suffers from a mental illness, mental infir mity, drunkenness or a similar condition.
Civil Code, Art 18: Lack of legal capacity (Fehlen der Urteilsfahigkeit)
A person who lacks legal capacity cannot, unless a statutory exception applies, enter into any legal transactions.
Law on Pharmaceutical Products, Art 26: Basic principle relating to prescribing and dispensing {Grundsatz fur Verschreibung und Abgabe)
1 The prescribing and dispensing of pharmaceutical products must be carried out in accor dance with the acknowledged rules of medical and pharmaceutical science.
2 A pharmaceutical product may only be prescribed, if the state of health of the consumer or patient is known.
Narcotics Law, Art 11: {no title)
1 Medical doctors and veterinarians are obliged to use, dispense and prescribe drugs only to the extent that is necessary according to the acknowledged rules of medical science.
2 The same applies for the use and dispensing of drugs by dentists.
8 In this case the minimum punishment is a fine of 1 sfr (maximum fine 40'000 sfr ), the maximum is 3 years of imprisonment (Gefangms)
University of Zurich, Faculty of Law 4 Schwarzenegger & Summers Criminal law and Assisted Suicide in Switzerland February 2005
2. Legal problems related to assisted suicide
Example: Adult person, terminally ill, wants to commit assisted suicide.
First problem: Does this person have legal capacity (Art. 16 Civil Code)?
1. If that person has no legal capacity, his or her request has no legal validity (Art. 18 Civil Code). Assisting such a person to terminate his or her life does not constitute assisted suicide in the sense of Art. 115 Penal Code.
Consequence: The person who assists can be held criminally responsible for the intentional killing of the victim as an "indirect perpetrator" (Art. 111-113 Penal Code).9 This is the case, if someone, in the knowledge that a person doe not have legal capacity (i.e. a child, someone who is mentally ill), nonetheless helps the latter to terminate his or her life, and thus, holds control over the victim's action. Even non-intervention can be a crime. Parents have a duty to prevent their children from ter minating their lives. This also applies to medical doctors in respect of their patients. Non intervention on the part of these so-called guarantors (ie people with a duty of care) results in their being criminally responsible for intentional killing by omission (Art. Ill Penal Code).10 If parents or doctors refrained from intervening because they thought that the person commit ting "suicide" had legal capacity, the question arises as to whether they can be held responsi ble for not having applied due diligence in examining the mental state of the victim (negligent killing by omission, Art. 117 Penal Code).
2. If that person has legal capacity, a further problem has to be addressed.
Second problem: Who carries out the "self-termination"?
1. If the act carried out by the person who assists directly causes the death of the victim (i.e. injection of barbiturate), the act no longer constitutes an assisted suicide in the sense of Art. 115 Penal Code. It is rather a case of direct active euthanasia, which is an intentional killing on request according to Art. 114 Penal Code.11
2. If the act is carried out by the victim himself or herself, the case falls under Art. 115 Penal Code. The person assisting in the suicide can only be held criminally responsible, if he or she acts for selfish reasons (i.e. pecuniary profit, publicity, to receive the inheritance). Assistance provided by Swiss organisations such as EXIT or Dignitas do not usually fall within the realm of criminal liability, because of the absence of this selfish motive. Thus, the assistance is le gal.
9 This concept is used, if the person that carries out the act (ie the suicide) does not act wilfully and is controlled by the 'indirect perpetrator'. 10 Murder or voluntary manslaughter are also possible, if the conditions of Art. 112 or Art. 113 Penal Code are met. '' Intentional killing, murder or voluntary manslaughter are also possible, if the conditions of Art. 114 Penal Code are not met.
University of Zurich, Faculty of Law 5 Schwarzenegger & Summers Criminal law and Assisted Suicide in Switzerland February 2005
Third problem: Can a medical doctor prescribe a deadly pharmaceutical product?
1. In cases, where a terminal illness is diagnosed, the acknowledged rules of the medical sci ences permit the prescription of deadly barbiturates to eliminate pain. Thus, the prescription of barbiturates is not in violation of Art. 26 of the Law on Pharmaceutical Products and Art. 11 Narcotics Law.
2. If no serious anamnesis (medical examinations) of the person seeking assisted suicide is done, the medical doctor will face punishment according to the Law on Pharmaceutical Prod ucts and the Narcotics Law. Additionally, his or her licence can be revoked under the Canto nal Health Legislation.
3. Bibliography
• Georg BOSSHARD, Esther ULRICH, Walter BAR, '748 cases of suicide assisted by a Swiss right-to-die organisation', Swiss Medical Weekly, Vol. 133 (2003) 310-317.
• Klaus Peter RIPPE, Christian SCHWARZENEGGER, Georg BOSSHARD, Martin KIESEWETTER, 'Urteilsfahigkeit von Menschen mit psychischen Storungen und Suizidbeihilfe', Schweizeri- sche Juristen-Zeitung, Vol. 101 (2005) 35-62 and 81-91.
• Christian SCHWARZENEGGER, 'Art. 111-117 (Totung)', in NIGGLI, Marcel Alexander / WIPRACHTIGER, Hans (Hrsg.), Basler Kommentar, Strafgesetzbuch II, Art. 111-401 StGB, Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 2003, 1-85.
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