“Exit: The Right to Die” Movie Opens Today

The movie, Exit: The Right to Die, opens today, October 25, 2006.  Here is the synopsis from movieweb.com:

Fernand Melgar’s “Exit” is a new documentary that deals with the most mundane and yet most emotionally fraught of subjects: death. Eventually, none of us escapes the ordeal of a parent or friend’s death; inevitably we wonder if fate will be kind to us, or if we will endure a painful and lingering demise. In Switzerland, Exit, a membership organization, facilitates a dignified, swift and pain-free end to the lives of members who are terminal. The film follows the activities of volunteer “escorts” responsible for visiting clients. We hear their conversations, watch them prepare the lethal solution, and in one instance oversee its administration. The humanity and decency with which all this is conducted leaves little wonder that Exit has a long waiting list for membership. Amazingly, for more than 20 years Switzerland has been the only nation in the world to allow legally assisted suicide by groups such as this one. As anyone who has ever raised the subject knows, in the United States it remains one of our last taboos – despite the fact that a majority of Americans support some form of “the right to die.” “Exit” makes apparent that the freedom to end one’s life is one that every society owes its citizens.

For a review of the movie, see Stephen Holden, Leaving This Mortal Coil With a Plan and a Departure Date, NY Times, Oct. 25, 2006.  Here is an excerpt:

The focus of “Exit: The Right to Die” is so limited that the movie never broaches the religious issues surrounding assisted suicide. And it touches on the legal issues only tangentially.

The potential for abuse, should legally assisted suicide become widespread, isn’t addressed, although it is easy to imagine any number of situations that are not as clear as the movie’s case studies. * * *

The film begins with an escort’s visit to a dying woman named Micheline who signs a declaration of intent. In the final scene it returns to her home to observe the final ritual. Despite the humanity and courage exhibited by the members of Exit, the film is inescapably grim.