How to Die in Oregon Hot

This 2011 documentary film about the Oregon Death with Dignity Act won the Grand Jury prize for documentary film at the 27th Sundance Film Festival. Although a documentary, it is far from dry, and neither will you remain dry-eyed while watching it. But this is hardly surprising given that it addresses the highly emotional subject of death and dying, and the emotionally-charged beliefs around the right to choose a dignified death when faced with a terminal diagnosis.

The opening scene seems quite ordinary: a woman standing at the kitchen sink, mixing powder in a glass of water. One quickly understands that this person is a volunteer with Compassion and Choices, and that she is mixing a lethal medication for an elderly terminally ill patient who has voluntarily chosen to die by self-administering this medication. The demeanor of the volunteer, the terminally ill patient, and the family member seems equally pragmatic and ordinary as mixing a glass of water, but we understand that this act has profound and truly incalculable significance.

This film gives viewers a raw and honest look at the surreal and yet ordinary lives of over a dozen people in diverse circumstances who have chosen to utilize Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and voluntarily take their own life. It is surreal because unless you have personally experienced being in such a situation, nothing can prepare you for it; it is ordinary because death is part of life and we all will die. There are, of course, legal criteria to be in compliance with this law and to protect physicians from being held liable: 1) two doctors must independently certify that the person has 6 months or less to live; 2) two people must witness the the patient’s request to their physician for a prescription for the lethal medication, and 3) the patient must be able to self-administer; and 4) the patient must be of sound mind. And of course, the patient has the right to change their mind, at any time.

The film presents views from both sides of the right-to-die-with-dignity fence, but the main thrust of this fine film is to tread gently and with great sensitivity into people’s lives as they move toward their conscious desire to die humanely. Talk about reality TV! It is both disconcerting and reassuring to get an inside view of how the Death with Dignity Act looks in real life. As someone who went thorugh Hospice with my own mother less than a year ago, I know that if I had been able to see a film about how Hospice care actually plays out in the day-to-day, I would have been so much better prepared and could have been an even better caretaker for my mom. The people who agreed to take part in How To Die in Oregon have given each of us a great gift in sharing such intimate and sacred moment in their lives, and with this film, filmmaker Peter Richardson has placed Oregon once again at the forefront of shifting awareness about attitudes toward death and practices around dying.