On Oct. 17, CNN’s Bianna Golodryga interviewed the filmmaker behind “Last Flight Home,” a daughter’s chronicle of her father’s final days before euthanasia. Ondi Timoner, who made the film about the late Eli Timoner, described her father’s sudden decision to die by choice rather than naturally from his terminal illness.
“It was shocking, frankly,” Timoner said. “It was scary for all of our family. But we had to support him.”
Timoner said her brother found a law in California that would allow their father an assisted suicide: “We didn’t even know that, because we don’t talk about death and dying in our society.”
Timoner’s impulse to support and love her dying father was a beautiful desire but sadly misdirected by the haze of lies surrounding euthanasia.
Twelve U.S. states are considering legalizing euthanasia in 2023, and another 10 states currently permit it. Canada recently expanded its euthanasia program to people who are not physically ill.
Euthanasia’s growing reach makes it an issue of concern for all of us. The issue demands a consistent, compassionate response that is founded in our shared humanity.
Suffering People Need Care, Not Killing
The perceived need for euthanasia is rooted in mistaken ideas about love, dependence, and compassion. “When Patients Choose to End Their Lives,” a 2021 New York Times article, says that rather than physical pain, most requests for euthanasia are motivated by “a loss of autonomy, a loss of dignity, a loss of quality of life and an ability to engage in what
