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.