Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke speaking about the organisational and emotional difficulties involved in assisting people who have chosen to take their own lives. He discusses the close relationships he establishes with those who seek his help in ending their lives, and the difficulty of dealing with the loss of such relationships when ‘you’re left there in the room, just you and the dead person’.

Educational value points

• Dr Philip Nitschke, a controversial figure in the voluntary euthanasia movement, describes the personal repercussions of being involved in assisted suicide. He frankly and emotionally discusses the role he plays in helping to organise another person’s death. He describes the challenges of this situation, such as his feelings of being like ‘an executioner’ and the friendships he inevitably develops with those he is attempting to help.

• Euthanasia is a highly contentious practice that is opposed by many governments and church groups on moral and religious grounds. It differs from physician-assisted suicide, in which a doctor provides a patient with the means to end their own life but does not administer it. Euthanasia occurs if a doctor gives a patient an injection of a lethal drug, sufficient to cause their death. But if the doctor puts the hypodermic needle beside the patient’s bed, explains what it is and then leaves, and the patient later injects themselves, this is called assisted suicide.

• Assisted suicide is specifically prohibited in most countries. However, some countries or jurisdictions have a variety of qualifiers to this prohibition, allowing, for example, physician-assisted suicide, the deliberate withdrawal of life-support mechanisms or the deliberate withholding of life-prolonging medical treatment. These forms of euthanasia are often referred to as ‘passive’ whereas the administering of a poison or an overdose is referred to as ‘active’.

• Dr Philip Nitschke is one of the most controversial figures in Western society’s voluntary euthanasia movement. Born in South Australia in 1947, Nitschke initially seemed set on a career in physics, but then became a medical doctor with a lifelong commitment to political activities. The causes he has supported include Indigenous rights, nuclear disarmament, the peace movement and people’s right to determine the time and manner of their death.

• The observational documentary style of film seen in the clip avoids the use of an intrusive narrator, allowing subjects to speak in their own words as Nitschke does here. This non-intrusive style of filming can provide moments of insight, emotion and reflection. In this clip there is evidence of the personal toll of Nitschke’s work. As the camera remains fixed on him he looks occasionally to the unseen interviewer but as he discusses the realities of assisted suicide, such as being in a room with a deceased person, he pauses, averts his eyes, looking down as he acknowledges that these moments are ‘very difficult’.

• The development of the observational documentary was facilitated by the invention of more portable cameras and sound equipment, which enabled cameras to be taken into intimate spaces such as cars and people’s homes. The extent to which any documentary is truly observational rather than acted, however, is known only to those involved in the film’s production.

Interview with Dr Philip Nitschke.

Dr Philip Nitschke This was very hard going for that few hours. The whole day was spent, really, it was difficult to prepare for, it was difficult to sleep, it was difficult to go through the preliminaries, it was difficult to get transport arranged, it was difficult to get the psychiatric opinion and then, of course, it was exceedingly difficult to then, uh, basically be with that man as he decided to go ahead. Just the two of us really – him and I. So in a sense I had to try and address all those last-minute issues that he wanted to talk about. And do what I could to him.

Again this thing that haunts one a little bit, about feeling like being an executioner is very much there, you can’t escape that. And so it’s a funny sort of relationship you develop with th–, these are people you get to know quite well, of course, I mean, they are quite ill and you see them a lot. I was seeing him almost twice daily, well, certainly daily, in the end, twice daily. As we led up to this particular time and you develop an understanding of the person, you develop a friendship.

I’m not trying to overstate this but nevertheless you do develop closeness. And then, of course, it ends very abruptly, the friendship ends very abruptly. I see it as end; you could make some sort of statement about the fact the friendship continues even though he’s dead but realistically, the life ends. And you’re just left there, you’re left there in the room, just you and the dead person. And that’s very difficult.

Bells toll.