Till death do us part: Couple die together in Oregon
by Xavier Symons | 10 Mar 2018 |
A controversial new documentary has been released in the US telling the story of an Oregon couple who took their own lives via lethal medication in April 2017.
The documentary recounts the story of Charlie and Francie Emerick, 88 and 87 respectively, who last year applied to the Oregon Health Authority for a lethal prescription after being diagnosed with terminal illnesses. Charlie was suffering from advanced Parkinson's Disease, and Francie had battled for several years with lymphoma.
The Emericks died at home in April 2017, surrounded by family. They had been married for 66 years.
“They were each other‘s best friend,” Jerilyn Marler, their eldest of the couple’s three children, told reporters. “In their last years, Dad was Mom’s eyes and Mom was Dad’s ears. It was natural for them to want to die together”.
The documentary presents the couple’s decision in a very favourable light, though some close friends and relatives disagreed. Bioethicist Thaddeus Mason Pope speculated that they may have been the “first couple” to take their lives together under Oregon’s Death with Dignity law. Nearly 1,300 people have died in Oregon via lethal prescription since the enactment of the law in 1997.
A recent US documentary recounts the story of an Oregon couple who committed suicide together in April 2017. The couple, Charlie and Francie Emerick, had both been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. They felt that, after having been married and together for some sixty odd years, it was only fitting that they exit this world as a couple.
Talk of “fittingness” in the context of death draws our attention to a broader topic, namely, the aesthetics of death. Just as we seek beauty in life, so also do we seek beauty in death.
There is a certain beauty to ending the narrative arc of our lives with a “fitting” poetic flourish. And in the context of euthanasia, it seems that many cases are underpinned by a desire not just for a peaceful death, but a beautiful death.
In 2016, a 41-year-old Californian multi-media and performance artist, Betsy Davis, ended her life with lethal medication. Davis wanted her suicide to be a “final act” in her artistic career, and she organised an elaborate weekend of celebrations and performances before consuming the lethal dose on a canopy bed by a hillside.
I wonder if, in seeking a beautiful death, we should look the wisdom the ages, rather than following our own artistic intuitions. The 15th century Latin tract Ars Moriendi provides persons in extremis with guidance for a good death. It encourages readers to face death bravely, to avoid temptations to despair, impatience or pride, and to surround oneself with those loved ones who, in life, have brought joy to one’s soul.
I’m not sure that the authors of the text had assisted suicide in mind when they outlined the elements of the ars moriendi.
XAVIER SYMONS
Deputy Editor
Talk of “fittingness” in the context of death draws our attention to a broader topic, namely, the aesthetics of death. Just as we seek beauty in life, so also do we seek beauty in death.
There is a certain beauty to ending the narrative arc of our lives with a “fitting” poetic flourish. And in the context of euthanasia, it seems that many cases are underpinned by a desire not just for a peaceful death, but a beautiful death.
In 2016, a 41-year-old Californian multi-media and performance artist, Betsy Davis, ended her life with lethal medication. Davis wanted her suicide to be a “final act” in her artistic career, and she organised an elaborate weekend of celebrations and performances before consuming the lethal dose on a canopy bed by a hillside.
I wonder if, in seeking a beautiful death, we should look the wisdom the ages, rather than following our own artistic intuitions. The 15th century Latin tract Ars Moriendi provides persons in extremis with guidance for a good death. It encourages readers to face death bravely, to avoid temptations to despair, impatience or pride, and to surround oneself with those loved ones who, in life, have brought joy to one’s soul.
I’m not sure that the authors of the text had assisted suicide in mind when they outlined the elements of the ars moriendi.
XAVIER SYMONS
Deputy Editor
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