The Dystopian Future is Here
Filmmaker says Press the Stop Button on “Medical Aid in Dying”
In the 1973 sci-fi film Soylent Green, their dystopian world of 2022 comprises many ominous portents, including voluntary euthanasia centres for humans. One of the movie’s most iconic scenes sees a depressed senior named Sol visit such a clinic. He drinks a deadly cocktail provided by comforting clinicians in white lab coats. Sol watches selected nature scenes on big screens while he is euthanized. Sadly ironic, Edward G. Robinson, who played Sol, was living with cancer at the time.
Fast forward to 2023: A Quebec funeral home has renovated one of its rooms for doctors to end the lives of patients who qualify for euthanasia or “Medical Aid in Dying”. With Canada’s ever-expanding criteria for euthanasia—including, potentially, advance directives and mental illness—we are nearing the day when we can decide when our lives are “complete”, and plan an end-of-life party involving lethal injection, funeral and burial. And funeral homes can be the one-stop-shop.
Nonsense?
Recently, the German High Court ruled that people have the right to commit suicide and to receive assistance in doing it. A “self-determined death” is now a fundamental freedom there.
In the Netherlands, lawmakers have discussed the Completed Life bill, which would open up euthanasia to people for existential reasons (namely, being tired of life). Sadly, people are asking for this law because of loneliness and a lack of meaning.
In my recent documentary, Fatal Flaws: Legalizing Assisted Death, (DunnMedia/Euthanasia Prevention Coalition) I interviewed a 29-year-old Dutch woman named Aurelia, who was living with psychiatric issues. She told me she was fighting for her “right to die,” despite doctors saying she did not qualify for euthanasia under Dutch law.
“If someone were to give me the lethal drink right now,” she told me, “I would drink it right away. And I hope it tastes like Coca-Cola.”
I asked Aurelia if she would reconsider if there was a cure for her illness or if she had the support she needed. She told me her situation was hopeless. She said death was her only option. Within a year, the End of Life Clinic, an independent clinic that “specializes in euthanasia,” gave Aurelia the answer she wanted. She was euthanized by a doctor just a few weeks after my second interview with her.
Even though she likely had never seen the movie, Aurelia hoped her death would be pleasurable, like what Sol experienced while dying in Soylent Green, with all the beautiful videos and music. Instead she had to take anti-nausea medication before consuming her own cocktail of deadly drugs, so her body wouldn’t reject them in an attempt to live. I carry her story with me everywhere I speak about this issue.
In the fictional movie Soylent Green, euthanasia is available to anyone who feels their life isn’t worth living. While Sol is in line at the euthanasia clinic, he’s surrounded by the elderly and people with disabilities. While the process is voluntary, one can easily see the subtle obligation to “apply” for assisted suicide if life becomes too difficult or if health care becomes too expensive.
How prophetic. Today the main reasons why people ask for euthanasia are fear of future suffering, fear of losing autonomy or fear of becoming a burden. And when only 30 per cent of Canadians have access to quality palliative care, the alternative (euthanasia) may seem like the only option.
Audiences in the 1970s thought Sol’s assisted suicide was eerie and disturbing. Would the reaction be the same today?
Why do we mourn those who die of independently-inflicted suicide but rationalize state-delivered suicide for people who are lonely or scared?
In places like California, doctors are “specializing” in assisted suicide and charging $2,000 per death.
And when hospices stand their ground and won’t euthanize patients for religious or ethical reasons, like B.C.’s Delta Hospice Society, they are told they will lose government funding. And now a court ruling sees Ontario doctors who disagree with euthanasia losing their conscience rights. “Do or refer,” they say – or “find another practise.”
As a result, hospitals have their own “MAiD teams.” Residents of rural communities can call mobile units to do the deed.
In some provinces, euthanasia has increased by 50 per cent in one year alone. Since the law was passed, over 31,000 people have used the medical system to end their lives prematurely. And to make matters worse, the Canadian government has been determined to expand the euthanasia law.
Bill C-7 proposed a two-track euthanasia process whereby a person who is not terminally ill has a 90-day waiting period, while the previous 10-day waiting period for people who are terminally ill is waived. That means that some people could be euthanized on the same day as their request. It also permits ending the lives of people who cannot consent at the time they are euthanized.
With the “foreseeable death” condition now removed from the law, people with disabilities (who already face rampant discrimination in our society) are at serious risk.
While much of Soylent Green remains in the sci-fi realm, Robinson’s assisted suicide scene is inching closer and closer to reality in our cold, hyper-individualistic culture. We’d best press the stop button on these laws before we decide – or someone decides on our behalf – that our life is no longer worthy of living.
Kevin Dunn is a Canadian Filmmaker and International Speaker who can be reached at www.kevindunn.info.