Event

EXIT, el derecho a morir

Do we have the right to freely choose the moment to put an end to our own lives ? Fernand Melgar presents to us the intimacy of assisted death as, without mannerisms or dramatic effects, the camera maintains a discreet presence that allows the characters and situations to unfold for themselves.This documentary is produced by Climage, an association of independent film-makers which, since 1985, has produced documentaries that address social, cultural and historical issues.

We do not know what day or time, but when an illness strikes with its pain and physical decline, we come face to face with death. The time left seems terrible and full of anguish. How can we spare both ourselves and our families the agony of a painful death?

Switzerland is the only country that has associations like EXIT, which legally provide suicide assistance to people at the end of their lives. For over 20 years, the associations' volunteers have accompanied the sick and the disabled to a death that they consider to be more dignified.

In this documentary, the dying and those who accompany them face death head on. Not as a taboo or an unacceptable end, but as a release. In a society that seeks to control everything, we ask ourselves this intimate question: isn't the right to choose our own death the ultimate freedom?

Doctor Sobel highlights the fact that the reasons for opposing assisted suicide are above all religious. "Not so long ago, pain was considered to be something redeeming, a way of buying our way to heaven. The more we suffered here below, the better we would be up there...

"If we were to follow this logic, there would be neither analgesics nor palliative cures. Yet some of the people who ask for our help are believers who die with their souls at peace. And the presence of a priest at the self-release is not exceptional."


Programme:

Friday 13 January

Presentation by Fernand Melgar

Screening of EXIT, The right to die by Fernand Melgar, 2005, Switzerland, 78', French with Spanish subtitles

Debate with Fernand Melgar, Dr Jerôme Sobel (President of Exit) and Dr. Jesús Barquín (Lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of Granada and co-author of the book Eutanasia y suicidio , Cuestiones dogmáticas y de política criminal)

Saturday 14 January

Screening of EXIT, The right to die by Fernand Melgar, 2005, Switzerland, 78', Spanish subtitles