Disabled groups condemn Eastwood euthanasia film

[emad]

Telegraph
By James Langton in New York
(Filed: 23/01/2005)

Clint Eastwood, the Hollywood screen legend, is under fire from disabled groups who say that his latest award-winning film is thinly disguised propaganda for euthanasia.

Eastwood is the director of Million Dollar Baby, a drama about a female boxer described as "Rocky in a sports bra," in which he also stars alongside Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.

The film went on general release in the United States earlier this month and critics identified it as a leading contender for an Academy Award after Swank and Eastwood won Golden Globes for Best Actress and Best Director.

Ostensibly, the film is about a young boxer who turns to an elderly trainer to take her to the top. Yet audiences have been astonished by an unheralded plot twist in which a leading character becomes crippled in a serious accident and begs to be put to death.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/23/wclint23.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/01/23/ixportal.html

[johnfunk]

1. But... but.... but... don't conservatives tout individual choice?

Progressives should run conservative moralists' noses in this ideological contradiction.

So what is it? Do they support individual rights -- or imposing "moral values," usually a consequence of superstitious religious beliefs, on others?

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Most of these "convenient conservatives" have morals that serve

the purpose of the moment. They seem to value a life as long as it proves the point they want. As long as THEY don't have to pay to support that life they are in favor of saving it. If that life starts to cost them, they could not care less. Once the life leaves the womb, and starts to need health care or education, it is not worth anything any more. And don't even begin to get me started on their support of capital punishment and war. Isn't loss of life involved in those things? Why am I constantly surprised that these "morans" are proven again and again to be the absolute definition of hypocrites?

[Warpy]

2. Jaysis

Anti euthanasia people are weird. They seem to have no personal boundaries, that what they think is right for them should be extended to everybody, period.

Euthanasia is always a touchy subject since, in many cases, if you take care of a person's depression and pain, they are no longer suicidal.

What they found in Oregon was that people who were provided the means to end their lives rarely used them once the pain and depression were treated, although having the means afforded them a great deal of peace of mind.

Forcing another person to wring every last bit of misery out of life becausse you are afraid to die is just plain wrong. Allowing people to end their lives without treating obvious things like pain and depression is equally wrong.

I applaud Eastman for at least opening a discussion, although I'll reserve judgment on the film until I see it.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. I heard about the twist ending on Laura Flanders last night.

One of the speakers on her show was very upset at the Hillary Swank character's willingness to give up so easily, and thought it was disgusting.
What does it say to eveyone else who has to deal with hardship and difficulty? What would have Christopher Reeve have said?

ON EDIT: The woman on the Laura Flanders show was not disputing one's right to choose to die. Her argument was with the character's unwillingness to even try to live with her disability. My understanding of the plot, not having seen the film, is that the Swank character becomes a quadriplegic, and would rather die than try to learn to live that way. It is not that she is in extreme pain and life is unbearable because of that.
This objecter's argument was that there are many disabled people whose lives are worth living. It did not sound to me that her argument was against euthanasia per se.

[lazarus]

4. People do it all the time

The question is, was the suicide advocated or portrayed? Was the message, "kill yourself if you become disabled", or was it, "this person became disabled, and killed herself"?

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Guess you have to see the movie and decide for yourself.

[lazarus]

7. doesn't bother me either way, to be honest

And I'm disabled.

If someone commits suicide because a disabled character in a film committed suicide, then they've got deep emotional problems that needed to be addressed anyway.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Guess it is basically another distraction for the neocons and fundies

to use to make noise about so as to distract the people from the real issues the they should be thinking about these days...Kind of like SpongeBob Squarepants being gay. You know, the really vital things that affect us all every day, instead of Social Security being dismantled, the war in Iraq, the economy, the environment, no jobs, no health coverage and trivial things like that.

[lazarus]

10. yup

"Quick, look over there, something shiny!"

[chefgirl]

8. Hey thanks

Why dont you just give away the ENTIRE plot while you're at it?

:eyes:

-chef-

[ismnotwasm]

11. The euthanasia law in Oregon

Last I read about, anyway. When dying folks were given the opportunity to choose their own death time, whether from a terminal neoplasm, or a progressive, disabling, and eventually deadly disease, many of them did not choose the euthanasia. What they said was, the relief of having the choice, to have control, to pick the time, to not helplessly die in pain, was what made the difference. The choice. I'll have to see the movie.