Illinois End of Life Options Coalition (made up of Compassion & Choice, Final Options Illinois, and ACLU – IL) is screening the documentary film How to Die in Oregon, an award-winning film about physician-assisted suicide in Oregon in the mid 1990s.
The screening is free and open to the public, and starts at 7 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, September 10th. There will be a post-screening Q+A about the film as well. Here’s the synopsis of the film, as well as the trailer below that.
In 1994, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. As a result, any individual whom two physicians diagnose as having less than six months to live can lawfully request a fatal dose of barbiturate to end his or her life. Since 1994, more than 500 Oregonians have taken their mortality into their own hands. In How to Die in Oregon, filmmaker Peter Richardson gently enters the lives of the terminally ill as they consider whether – and when – to end their lives by lethal overdose. Richardson examines both sides of this complex, emotionally charged issue. What emerges is a life-affirming, staggeringly powerful portrait of what it means to die with dignity.
Top photo from the documentary’s website, flier from Final Options Illinois
