On Tuesday, November 14, PBS aired the Frontline segment “The Suicide Plan” – which focused on the “assisted suicide underground.”
It’s hard for me to judge how this show would have struck the average viewer. I know I need to force myself to review the show for a deeper reaction than I can offer right now, a few minutes after midnight. The upside is that the show is fresh in memory – the downside is that I’m tired and don’t have the time or energy to go back through the show for more detailed comments.
First of all, almost the first half hour of this 90-minute show was taken up with the personal stories of three individuals, two of whom had facilitated suicides as individuals, and a seriously ill woman who was planning to commit suicide with the help, advice and guidance of advisors from Compassion and Choices, the largest assisted suicide organization in the US with a respectable reputation.
Told only by the people involved, the stories are meant to evoke sympathy for the friends and family members who have facilitated the suicides of others – and we’re not encouraged to wonder if there’s more to the story than the obviously self-serving accounts of those involved. Nor are we encouraged to question to the veracity of claims made by Barbara Coombs-Lee of Compassion and Choices that their “counseling” program – “helping people” commit suicide in the 48 states that have not legalized assisted suicide – is strictly limited to people who are terminally ill and that it’s all tightly controlled.
The near-total avoidance of the word “suicide” by the narrator is also a tip-off that the sympathies of the film makers are squarely in the pro-assisted suicide camp.
Nevertheless, a few things that should chill some viewers were shown. One of the most important revelations involved the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) ‘sting’ operation with the Final Exit Network (FEN), in which a GBI agent posed as a man who claimed to be dying of cancer.
In the accounts of the sting, references were made to the GBI affidavit that claimed then-president of the Final Exit Network Ted Goodwin told the agent that as an “exit guide” he would “hold his hands down” to prevent his hands from “inadvertently” ripping the helium-filled plastic bag off. In interview after interview, FEN members denied allegations that they held people’s hands down.
It turns out it was true. The GBI videotaped it. It’s unfortunate the videotape has gone unmentioned in all the previous coverage of the Georgia case.
It’s getting late and I think I’ll let it rest here. I’ll review the show tomorrow and write more about what the show revealed – intentionally or not.
One final thought, though. This show was – correctly – run with a warning about mature content, etc. in the beginning.
So what genius at PBS labeled this show as falling under the genre “Parent Picks” in the TV listings. It’s shown in the screenshot below:
Have a good night. I think I’m exhausted enough to sleep now. More later.
Stephen,
Your blog post is perfect to me: real time reaction. I am glad I don’t have a tv. The review reminds me that the interviews echo a old show from “This American Life”, played (believe it or not) on a Christmas Eve, a couple of years ago. I was so bothered by it, I commented on Not Dead Yet about it. Very distorted, not from our point of view – again.
On “about us, but without us” are two shows within the last few days on “Democracy Now” (which is carried on many PBS stations. I hear it on WBAI, which has been under new management – and flooded out of Wall street studio by Storm Sandy, still). The local station board now has a majority of hostile in re wheelchair access members, with the minority faction representing us in re wheelchair access.).
“Democracy Now” had Stephen Drake on as a guest around the time of Terri Schiavo’s murder in FL, if my memory is right. I know neither Drake nor Diane Coleman were invited (nor anyone else from NDY) when there was talk of “Death Panels”. My ongoing criticism of DemNow is the invisibility of people with disabilities with a few exceptions: veterans not getting disability from the VA(Aaron Glantz has been covering this story over a long time; he’s a vet but not disabled, and one disabled woman vet was on re PTSD). No mention was made of the similarity between the rejection rate by error of vets who are disabled and people applying to their states for disability under Social Security: mistakes save money for the government- there is no incentive to make it work for disabled vets or disabled applying for benefits from Social Security. The other recent disability story was yesterday, deaf kids abused in a school for the deaf, years ago, in the U.S. by a priest and the church cover-up. Only the film director was present. The two other times I remember disability being covered on Democracy Now was a good, short segment on disabled activists in Detroit and a story about people disabled by cluster bombs. I think the omission is related to a heavy emphasis on “new age” Canadian doctor, who presents that sickness,etc is a result of childhood trauma, a generalization that I abhor, that is solely based on his childhood (as a Jewish Holocaust survivor), applying that principle about addiction he hatched to illness and disability, as I observe/hear his pet theories. I am always surprised when someone is rigorous about science in re climate change, global warming, oil spills, etc but support cockamamie nonscience in re disability and illness. (I sure could use a “preview” and “edit” button -pass request on to techies, please.)
Great points, Steve. Timothy Quill comes off as a disinterested, rational bystander, rather than the zealot he is. He occupies the reasonable space of, it’s okay for terminally ill people, not so good for people declared eligible through Final Exit Network’s diagnosis of “suffering.”.
The story about the mentally ill woman who killed herself without any physical maladies was pretty chilling, and obviously wrong.
I got a call from a person working on the film, and I gave her our regular spiel, maybe it will show up online.
I saw this on PBS and thought it excellent. How can I get a video copy for my library?
Maybe try going to the PBS and/or Frontline sites for ordering info?