VICE (2013) s04e03 Episode Script
Right to Die
1 This week on "Vice": The heated debate surrounding the right to die.
Assisting in the taking of a human life is against everything physicians stand for.
When they are sitting in this chair, then they can make their own decision.
We're about an hour and 15 minutes from when she's gonna end her life.
(theme music playing) (gunshot) (crowd chanting) So, how long have you lived here? In this house, 50 years.
In my big house, uh, 35.
Okay.
In the same village.
So, what was here before? Here was a table.
Yeah.
But tomorrow I lay here in my coffin.
Yeah, tomorrow this is the space? Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So the table must go away.
You want a coffee? Yeah, I would love some coffee.
Okay.
Thank you.
Milk, sugar? Uh, milk.
Little milk.
Little milk.
Okay.
Yeah.
Are you nervous at all? No.
No? No.
No.
It's all the people who come around and have tears and cry, and that's difficult, to say goodbye to everyone.
Yeah.
And that's what I wear.
It's special because I made it myself.
Yeah, beautiful.
It's on my card to send around I died.
Do you want to see the photo? Where I wear it? Yeah, sure.
So, we have to go here.
Feel so strong here, so, yeah.
So glad, so This come over my case, my coffin.
So, first, you are-- how do you call it in English? A caterpillar? Yeah.
And then it's the road you have to go.
And this are the nice flowers, but there are always stones.
The ugly stones.
So, it's about my life.
When does someone become the butterfly? When you die.
When you die? Yeah.
I worked in a hospice, so I've seen many dead people.
You can always see that the soul go out.
They are happy.
Really happy.
Nothing matter anymore.
Gandhi: In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia.
Since then, more than 37,000 people here have ended their lives with a doctor's assistance.
But here in the US, assisted suicide has always been controversial and for years was associated with the polarizing Dr.
Jack Kevorkian.
Kevorkian: When there's a suffering human out there, begging for help and the doctors say, "We can't help you," and they walk away, you think I'm gonna turn away? Never.
Gandhi: Today the practice is legal in only five states, but more states began to consider legalizing assisted suicide when the movement got a new face: Brittany Maynard.
Brittany: I know that it's there when I need it.
I plan to be surrounded by my immediate family, which is my husband, and my mother, and my step-father.
And I will die upstairs, in my bedroom that I share with my husband.
Gandhi: Ultimately, Maynard was able to end her life as she wished.
But her high-profile story served as a reminder that in most states Americans don't have that right.
She said her goal was to begin a national conversation about how we handle the end of life.
Gandhi: Shortly after Maynard's death, Christina Symonds moved to Oregon so she could have the same choice.
Christina suffers from ALS, a degenerative disease that causes paralysis, respiratory failure, and is 100% fatal.
When did you start thinking about the right to die? Or having aided death? Gandhi: So, how old is everyone? I'm eight.
You're eight.
What's your name? Emmerson.
Ferguson, I'm five.
Ferguson's five.
Ten.
Ten.
Hudson.
His name is Hudson.
Gandhi: Christina's husband, Teddy, a former policeman, retired early so that the family could make the move to Oregon before Christina's disease became too disabling.
Gandhi: What does Teddy think about your right to choose, and even the idea of it? What do the kids know about what's going on? Do they know everything, or they don't know? They don't know.
They know something is obviously different, but they don't know the full scale.
Yeah.
Because, I mean, I'm 45 years old.
I can barely think about it and handle-- You know what I mean? Which is why we live the way we live.
You know, getting out of the moment of thinking, and about what's potentially ahead of us.
(Teddy speaking) (Christina speaking) (Teddy speaks) (Christina speaking) (Christina speaking) Teddy: Christina, absolutely, is my best friend.
And my number one.
So I get it.
She doesn't want to sit back and be taken care of, and be wiped, and be fed.
She wants to go, "I'm done.
"It's not getting any better, "whatever was gonna work ain't working anymore, "and this is where I draw the line.
" And if you have that ability, it's power.
And it's It's a calmness and a security like-- like nothing else.
Gandhi: That's a sense of security that most dying Americans aren't granted by their respective states.
So I went to meet a man who's been helping many of them take matters into their own hands.
We're way out in the woods in Oregon.
I'm here to meet Derek Humphry, who is the author of "Final Exit.
" He gets calls every day from people who want to kill themselves.
I was reading about your career.
You started off as a journalist.
Humphry: Yeah, I was a journalist for 35 years.
What were you writing about? Mainly I wrote about race relations, immigration, police corruption, things like that.
I was always an advocacy journalist.
So, when this subject came upon me, I got more and more involved in it.
Gandhi: Humphry started the Hemlock Society, which laid the groundwork for Oregon's successful Right to Die campaign, and he's written two bestselling books on the subject.
This was the one that got me into it.
This is the account of my wife's death.
She was dying of breast cancer, and one day, when she was very, very ill, she said to me, "Help me to die.
" And I thought for a moment, and then I said, "All right, I will.
" Gandhi: Humphry found a sympathetic doctor and procured the life-ending drugs that are now the standard method used in Oregon.
He went on to write the ultimate how-to guide for the terminally ill who want to hasten their death, "Final Exit.
" This book is a book full of love, in a way.
It's 25 years old, still sells every day.
Gandhi: But it's not just a book of love.
It gives in-depth instructions on different ways you can kill yourself.
One popular method uses items you can find in your local party store.
This is helium, or you can use nitrogen.
(gas hissing) It's kind of a cooling effect.
If you pulled that down and tightened it, you would be dead within five minutes.
It's not aesthetic, you know, a plastic bag, but if you can't get any other way to, um to die, and you wish to die desperately, then this is as good as any.
And thousands of people have used it.
Do you see this as your calling? This? No.
I would scrap this and I would scrap my book when everybody has lawful access to a doctor-assisted death.
Gandhi: In Arizona, one of the 45 states where assisted suicide is illegal, we met Howard Glick.
He suffers from a rare brain disorder called frontotemporal degeneration, or FTD.
As his brain deteriorates, Howard is rapidly losing his memory and cognitive abilities and will eventually require constant care.
When they diagnosed you, what did you find out about the disease? So they diagnosed me, and I thought there was a cure, when they first mentioned it, I was happy.
And I was also happy because I'd just attempted suicide.
I mean, every-- My life was in such chaos, and I'd lost everything, and now I could, like, rebuild.
But then I found out, there's no cure.
No medicine, nothing.
Nothing.
Incurable, untreatable, unstoppable.
Next step: death.
What do I want to do? Waste away in a wheelchair, not even recognizing my children? Never mind the cost involved.
I don't want my children to suffer.
I contacted Final Exit, and you know, a lot of people from my support group, I found out from them.
And they say quick and painless is helium, and you breathe it in a few times with a turkey roaster and you're dead.
Gandhi: And Howard is not alone.
His support group is filled with people who have the same disease, and many of them are seeking the same end.
I'm tired of fighting a disease that I know I'm not gonna beat.
And I want to have dignity when I die.
People will say with a pet who is no longer living a full life, it's cruel to let that animal suffer.
Aren't I more important than an animal? If I don't want to suffer anymore, why do I have to? Gandhi: But this is just one support group, one disease.
There are thousands of patients across the country giving more power to the movement.
And this grassroots energy transformed into action in the most populous state in the country.
Woman: Good afternoon, and welcome everyone.
We are here today to announce the introduction of our bill SB 128, The End of Life Option Act.
I am a terminally ill cancer patient.
I fully support SB 128, and I beg you to.
Assisting in the taking of a human life is against everything physicians stand for and defiles the reputation and meaning of being a physician.
On behalf of my aunt who was competent and terminally ill and chose to shoot herself to end her suffering, I support this bill.
Just to remind you, you're not gods.
God is watching and God will judge you.
Gandhi: The bill had the support of nearly 70% of Californians, but the powerful Catholic Church helped to persuade lawmakers to stall it in the legislature.
That opposition was led by Ned Dolejsi, the church's top strategist in the state.
Why is Catholic leadership so opposed to the bill? From our faith perspective, there's the reality that God is God and we're not.
Now, that's a Catholic perspective that undergirds how we view life and how we view a question like suicide.
The question for this society right now is a question of public policy.
There's the dynamics of a very, very competitive health-care system, and when you become a burden, when you need cancer treatment, when you need 24-hour care, the interest of society in providing those over the course of time will go away.
That places people in a very vulnerable situation.
And the mentally ill, the disabled, those who are poor, will be the people who are inappropriately steered to, moved in this direction.
Gandhi: When we caught up with Christy O'Donnell, a practicing Christian, she had a very direct response.
When they are sitting in this chair with a stage IV diagnosis, and a child that they're leaving, or a husband that they love then they can make their own decision.
But until that happens, they will never know what it's truly like.
Gandhi: With legislation stalled, Christy turned to the courts to win the right to die on her own terms.
Judge after judge denied her request.
Gandhi: With only months to live, Christy was out of options.
I am very hopeful that while it may not be in my lifetime, and it was not in Brittany's lifetime, that it will not continue to occur, because it is an injustice.
I think it is just a matter of time, despite what the headlines were reading a while back.
I guess, don't count us out just yet.
Gandhi: But then, just four days later, the Right to Die bill was revived at the State House.
SB 128 was stalled in the Assembly, here in California, but today, at a press conference, there's gonna be an announcement of a new bill that's addressing end-of-life policies, and it's trying to be pushed through in a special session of the Assembly.
Gandhi: This special session on health-care financing brought the bill before a new committee and allowed the majority to bypass lawmakers blocking the vote.
The members of this coalition here today will do everything in their power to ensure that this legislature has been responsive not only to the will of an overwhelming number of Californians, but to the people who are counting on us to win the freedom for them to approach the end of life in the way that they choose.
Gandhi: This time, the bill passed in both houses, and on October 5th, Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law, effectively quadrupling the number of Americans with the right to assisted suicide, and that has the opposition up in arms.
If you look at what's emerged in Northern Europe, in Belgium and the Netherlands, you don't put it back in the bag.
We're going to find, longitudinally, this will play out, society will have less interest in expending money at the end of life.
The society looses interest because we've offered you your personal choice to take yourself out of this particular moment.
Gandhi: American opponents have warned for years that legalization would lead to a slippery slope, and that might actually be happening in Belgium and the Netherlands, where euthanasia is authorized for much more than terminal illnesses.
(speaking foreign language) Gandhi: Since her suffering is psychological, Antoinette would not be eligible for assisted suicide in any American state, but in the Netherlands and Belgium, doctors have euthanized patients for depression, autism, anorexia, blindness, and personality disorders.
Dr.
Theo Boer, a medical ethicist, used to serve on a review board for Dutch euthanasia cases.
He's concerned about some of his recent findings.
In the first years after the euthanasia law in Holland, in 2002, the numbers remained stable and even went down a little bit.
So, in 2007, we concluded that our law had done its job very properly.
However, after 2007, the numbers went up, with no apparent reason, by 15% each year.
And also the reasons for people having euthanasia have become much wider than they were in the beginning.
Where will we end up? Will euthanasia become the default way to die for cancer patients? Will it become one of the preferred options for patients suffering from long-term psychiatric illnesses? (knocking) Antoinette: Hello.
Come in.
Thank you.
Morning.
Good morning, you look very nice.
Hi.
Hi, how are you? Nice to see you.
Hi.
Gandhi: Soon after I arrived, we were joined by two of Antoinette's close friends.
The last years I've seen her gradually losing herself.
And I think that someone has the right to choose her own death, and the way she's going to die.
It's okay.
Yeah.
And I'm just here to support you.
I don't even think today is a hard day.
I think today is a day for celebrate.
Of celebrating.
Yes.
It is.
Finally, we can let you go.
Gandhi: While her friends support her decision, Antoinette's children object.
(speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) Woman: My diagnosis of Antoinette is that she suffers from a long-standing, probably life-long personality disorder, which is the basis of her complaints.
I met her three times, intensely, and after the third appointment, I reached a conclusion.
Gandhi: Despite his reservations, Antoinette's son ultimately decided that he wanted to stop in to say goodbye.
But he didn't want to be filmed.
(Antoinette speaking) (Antoinette speaks) Were you-- Difficult.
Were you surprised just now? Oh, yes.
I didn't know he would come.
(speaking foreign language) So, the nurse is about to arrive right now.
We're about an hour and 15 minutes out from when she's gonna end her life.
Gandhi: Shortly afterwards, Antoinette's daughter showed up to be with her mother, and right behind her was Dr.
Starcke.
(laughing) Okay.
Okay.
Bye.
Love you.
(Dr.
Starcke speaking) She gave the moment, "Okay, let's do it.
" She was still joyful, happy.
She chose her moment, and she got her moment.
Gandhi: Do you think this is a new perspective on how dying can work? Fons: We should consider as humanity that we give more options in future.
Because when your life is over, whether it's physically or psychologically, you have the right, I think, to take control of your own life and death.
And I think we have seen here a great example of how it can be done.
Gandhi: Assisted suicide laws in the United States are still tightly restricted to specific terminal cases.
But as more states look to legalize the practice, and millions of baby boomers begin to consider end-of-life decisions, the debate is only intensifying, and what remains unclear is just how far these new laws will go.
Assisting in the taking of a human life is against everything physicians stand for.
When they are sitting in this chair, then they can make their own decision.
We're about an hour and 15 minutes from when she's gonna end her life.
(theme music playing) (gunshot) (crowd chanting) So, how long have you lived here? In this house, 50 years.
In my big house, uh, 35.
Okay.
In the same village.
So, what was here before? Here was a table.
Yeah.
But tomorrow I lay here in my coffin.
Yeah, tomorrow this is the space? Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So the table must go away.
You want a coffee? Yeah, I would love some coffee.
Okay.
Thank you.
Milk, sugar? Uh, milk.
Little milk.
Little milk.
Okay.
Yeah.
Are you nervous at all? No.
No? No.
No.
It's all the people who come around and have tears and cry, and that's difficult, to say goodbye to everyone.
Yeah.
And that's what I wear.
It's special because I made it myself.
Yeah, beautiful.
It's on my card to send around I died.
Do you want to see the photo? Where I wear it? Yeah, sure.
So, we have to go here.
Feel so strong here, so, yeah.
So glad, so This come over my case, my coffin.
So, first, you are-- how do you call it in English? A caterpillar? Yeah.
And then it's the road you have to go.
And this are the nice flowers, but there are always stones.
The ugly stones.
So, it's about my life.
When does someone become the butterfly? When you die.
When you die? Yeah.
I worked in a hospice, so I've seen many dead people.
You can always see that the soul go out.
They are happy.
Really happy.
Nothing matter anymore.
Gandhi: In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia.
Since then, more than 37,000 people here have ended their lives with a doctor's assistance.
But here in the US, assisted suicide has always been controversial and for years was associated with the polarizing Dr.
Jack Kevorkian.
Kevorkian: When there's a suffering human out there, begging for help and the doctors say, "We can't help you," and they walk away, you think I'm gonna turn away? Never.
Gandhi: Today the practice is legal in only five states, but more states began to consider legalizing assisted suicide when the movement got a new face: Brittany Maynard.
Brittany: I know that it's there when I need it.
I plan to be surrounded by my immediate family, which is my husband, and my mother, and my step-father.
And I will die upstairs, in my bedroom that I share with my husband.
Gandhi: Ultimately, Maynard was able to end her life as she wished.
But her high-profile story served as a reminder that in most states Americans don't have that right.
She said her goal was to begin a national conversation about how we handle the end of life.
Gandhi: Shortly after Maynard's death, Christina Symonds moved to Oregon so she could have the same choice.
Christina suffers from ALS, a degenerative disease that causes paralysis, respiratory failure, and is 100% fatal.
When did you start thinking about the right to die? Or having aided death? Gandhi: So, how old is everyone? I'm eight.
You're eight.
What's your name? Emmerson.
Ferguson, I'm five.
Ferguson's five.
Ten.
Ten.
Hudson.
His name is Hudson.
Gandhi: Christina's husband, Teddy, a former policeman, retired early so that the family could make the move to Oregon before Christina's disease became too disabling.
Gandhi: What does Teddy think about your right to choose, and even the idea of it? What do the kids know about what's going on? Do they know everything, or they don't know? They don't know.
They know something is obviously different, but they don't know the full scale.
Yeah.
Because, I mean, I'm 45 years old.
I can barely think about it and handle-- You know what I mean? Which is why we live the way we live.
You know, getting out of the moment of thinking, and about what's potentially ahead of us.
(Teddy speaking) (Christina speaking) (Teddy speaks) (Christina speaking) (Christina speaking) Teddy: Christina, absolutely, is my best friend.
And my number one.
So I get it.
She doesn't want to sit back and be taken care of, and be wiped, and be fed.
She wants to go, "I'm done.
"It's not getting any better, "whatever was gonna work ain't working anymore, "and this is where I draw the line.
" And if you have that ability, it's power.
And it's It's a calmness and a security like-- like nothing else.
Gandhi: That's a sense of security that most dying Americans aren't granted by their respective states.
So I went to meet a man who's been helping many of them take matters into their own hands.
We're way out in the woods in Oregon.
I'm here to meet Derek Humphry, who is the author of "Final Exit.
" He gets calls every day from people who want to kill themselves.
I was reading about your career.
You started off as a journalist.
Humphry: Yeah, I was a journalist for 35 years.
What were you writing about? Mainly I wrote about race relations, immigration, police corruption, things like that.
I was always an advocacy journalist.
So, when this subject came upon me, I got more and more involved in it.
Gandhi: Humphry started the Hemlock Society, which laid the groundwork for Oregon's successful Right to Die campaign, and he's written two bestselling books on the subject.
This was the one that got me into it.
This is the account of my wife's death.
She was dying of breast cancer, and one day, when she was very, very ill, she said to me, "Help me to die.
" And I thought for a moment, and then I said, "All right, I will.
" Gandhi: Humphry found a sympathetic doctor and procured the life-ending drugs that are now the standard method used in Oregon.
He went on to write the ultimate how-to guide for the terminally ill who want to hasten their death, "Final Exit.
" This book is a book full of love, in a way.
It's 25 years old, still sells every day.
Gandhi: But it's not just a book of love.
It gives in-depth instructions on different ways you can kill yourself.
One popular method uses items you can find in your local party store.
This is helium, or you can use nitrogen.
(gas hissing) It's kind of a cooling effect.
If you pulled that down and tightened it, you would be dead within five minutes.
It's not aesthetic, you know, a plastic bag, but if you can't get any other way to, um to die, and you wish to die desperately, then this is as good as any.
And thousands of people have used it.
Do you see this as your calling? This? No.
I would scrap this and I would scrap my book when everybody has lawful access to a doctor-assisted death.
Gandhi: In Arizona, one of the 45 states where assisted suicide is illegal, we met Howard Glick.
He suffers from a rare brain disorder called frontotemporal degeneration, or FTD.
As his brain deteriorates, Howard is rapidly losing his memory and cognitive abilities and will eventually require constant care.
When they diagnosed you, what did you find out about the disease? So they diagnosed me, and I thought there was a cure, when they first mentioned it, I was happy.
And I was also happy because I'd just attempted suicide.
I mean, every-- My life was in such chaos, and I'd lost everything, and now I could, like, rebuild.
But then I found out, there's no cure.
No medicine, nothing.
Nothing.
Incurable, untreatable, unstoppable.
Next step: death.
What do I want to do? Waste away in a wheelchair, not even recognizing my children? Never mind the cost involved.
I don't want my children to suffer.
I contacted Final Exit, and you know, a lot of people from my support group, I found out from them.
And they say quick and painless is helium, and you breathe it in a few times with a turkey roaster and you're dead.
Gandhi: And Howard is not alone.
His support group is filled with people who have the same disease, and many of them are seeking the same end.
I'm tired of fighting a disease that I know I'm not gonna beat.
And I want to have dignity when I die.
People will say with a pet who is no longer living a full life, it's cruel to let that animal suffer.
Aren't I more important than an animal? If I don't want to suffer anymore, why do I have to? Gandhi: But this is just one support group, one disease.
There are thousands of patients across the country giving more power to the movement.
And this grassroots energy transformed into action in the most populous state in the country.
Woman: Good afternoon, and welcome everyone.
We are here today to announce the introduction of our bill SB 128, The End of Life Option Act.
I am a terminally ill cancer patient.
I fully support SB 128, and I beg you to.
Assisting in the taking of a human life is against everything physicians stand for and defiles the reputation and meaning of being a physician.
On behalf of my aunt who was competent and terminally ill and chose to shoot herself to end her suffering, I support this bill.
Just to remind you, you're not gods.
God is watching and God will judge you.
Gandhi: The bill had the support of nearly 70% of Californians, but the powerful Catholic Church helped to persuade lawmakers to stall it in the legislature.
That opposition was led by Ned Dolejsi, the church's top strategist in the state.
Why is Catholic leadership so opposed to the bill? From our faith perspective, there's the reality that God is God and we're not.
Now, that's a Catholic perspective that undergirds how we view life and how we view a question like suicide.
The question for this society right now is a question of public policy.
There's the dynamics of a very, very competitive health-care system, and when you become a burden, when you need cancer treatment, when you need 24-hour care, the interest of society in providing those over the course of time will go away.
That places people in a very vulnerable situation.
And the mentally ill, the disabled, those who are poor, will be the people who are inappropriately steered to, moved in this direction.
Gandhi: When we caught up with Christy O'Donnell, a practicing Christian, she had a very direct response.
When they are sitting in this chair with a stage IV diagnosis, and a child that they're leaving, or a husband that they love then they can make their own decision.
But until that happens, they will never know what it's truly like.
Gandhi: With legislation stalled, Christy turned to the courts to win the right to die on her own terms.
Judge after judge denied her request.
Gandhi: With only months to live, Christy was out of options.
I am very hopeful that while it may not be in my lifetime, and it was not in Brittany's lifetime, that it will not continue to occur, because it is an injustice.
I think it is just a matter of time, despite what the headlines were reading a while back.
I guess, don't count us out just yet.
Gandhi: But then, just four days later, the Right to Die bill was revived at the State House.
SB 128 was stalled in the Assembly, here in California, but today, at a press conference, there's gonna be an announcement of a new bill that's addressing end-of-life policies, and it's trying to be pushed through in a special session of the Assembly.
Gandhi: This special session on health-care financing brought the bill before a new committee and allowed the majority to bypass lawmakers blocking the vote.
The members of this coalition here today will do everything in their power to ensure that this legislature has been responsive not only to the will of an overwhelming number of Californians, but to the people who are counting on us to win the freedom for them to approach the end of life in the way that they choose.
Gandhi: This time, the bill passed in both houses, and on October 5th, Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law, effectively quadrupling the number of Americans with the right to assisted suicide, and that has the opposition up in arms.
If you look at what's emerged in Northern Europe, in Belgium and the Netherlands, you don't put it back in the bag.
We're going to find, longitudinally, this will play out, society will have less interest in expending money at the end of life.
The society looses interest because we've offered you your personal choice to take yourself out of this particular moment.
Gandhi: American opponents have warned for years that legalization would lead to a slippery slope, and that might actually be happening in Belgium and the Netherlands, where euthanasia is authorized for much more than terminal illnesses.
(speaking foreign language) Gandhi: Since her suffering is psychological, Antoinette would not be eligible for assisted suicide in any American state, but in the Netherlands and Belgium, doctors have euthanized patients for depression, autism, anorexia, blindness, and personality disorders.
Dr.
Theo Boer, a medical ethicist, used to serve on a review board for Dutch euthanasia cases.
He's concerned about some of his recent findings.
In the first years after the euthanasia law in Holland, in 2002, the numbers remained stable and even went down a little bit.
So, in 2007, we concluded that our law had done its job very properly.
However, after 2007, the numbers went up, with no apparent reason, by 15% each year.
And also the reasons for people having euthanasia have become much wider than they were in the beginning.
Where will we end up? Will euthanasia become the default way to die for cancer patients? Will it become one of the preferred options for patients suffering from long-term psychiatric illnesses? (knocking) Antoinette: Hello.
Come in.
Thank you.
Morning.
Good morning, you look very nice.
Hi.
Hi, how are you? Nice to see you.
Hi.
Gandhi: Soon after I arrived, we were joined by two of Antoinette's close friends.
The last years I've seen her gradually losing herself.
And I think that someone has the right to choose her own death, and the way she's going to die.
It's okay.
Yeah.
And I'm just here to support you.
I don't even think today is a hard day.
I think today is a day for celebrate.
Of celebrating.
Yes.
It is.
Finally, we can let you go.
Gandhi: While her friends support her decision, Antoinette's children object.
(speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language) Woman: My diagnosis of Antoinette is that she suffers from a long-standing, probably life-long personality disorder, which is the basis of her complaints.
I met her three times, intensely, and after the third appointment, I reached a conclusion.
Gandhi: Despite his reservations, Antoinette's son ultimately decided that he wanted to stop in to say goodbye.
But he didn't want to be filmed.
(Antoinette speaking) (Antoinette speaks) Were you-- Difficult.
Were you surprised just now? Oh, yes.
I didn't know he would come.
(speaking foreign language) So, the nurse is about to arrive right now.
We're about an hour and 15 minutes out from when she's gonna end her life.
Gandhi: Shortly afterwards, Antoinette's daughter showed up to be with her mother, and right behind her was Dr.
Starcke.
(laughing) Okay.
Okay.
Bye.
Love you.
(Dr.
Starcke speaking) She gave the moment, "Okay, let's do it.
" She was still joyful, happy.
She chose her moment, and she got her moment.
Gandhi: Do you think this is a new perspective on how dying can work? Fons: We should consider as humanity that we give more options in future.
Because when your life is over, whether it's physically or psychologically, you have the right, I think, to take control of your own life and death.
And I think we have seen here a great example of how it can be done.
Gandhi: Assisted suicide laws in the United States are still tightly restricted to specific terminal cases.
But as more states look to legalize the practice, and millions of baby boomers begin to consider end-of-life decisions, the debate is only intensifying, and what remains unclear is just how far these new laws will go.