Final Call

The Documentary Channel is playing this Australian  film about seniors seeking self-deliverance, which is another term for "rational suicide," a controversial topic indeed. The drug of choice seems to be Nembutal, unavailable in Australia, so seniors take trips to Mexico to buy it or even make it in backyard labs, all illegal activity. What is remarkable about this film are the seniors themselves. They are the most together, rational, caring and sincere group of elders I've ever seen on film -- and here they are forced to be criminals. The legal situation here is even worse, except in a few states like Oregon with doctor-assisted suicide. However, the restrictions on this option are major. Most of the Australians in this film would not qualify.

Like anyone my age, I've thought about my own death and the options I have. It seems to me there are only a few preferable ways to die:

• die instantly in an accident
• die in my sleep
• get a terminal incurable illness and use physician-assisted suicide
• self-deliverance

The most likely of these strikes me as the latter, so I've been doing considerable research on the matter. For me, the greatest disadvantage of self-deliverance is that I've yet to find anyone who agrees with this option, and so it will be lonely activity if it comes to that. One problem is I likely would choose this option before I would qualify legally for assistance. That is, I can think of many reasons to choose this long before getting any terminal illness. Ethically, morally, in fact, I don't think one should have to be "ill" at all. A person knows when the game is over. I person knows, or should, when it's time to move on to the next adventure.

These themes are in both my chamber opera Life Is A Nice Place To Visit and the untitled video I'm beginning to work on.

Final Call transcript