A film about Compassion & Choices of Oregon client Cody Curtis and her slow and careful decision to end her life using Oregon’s aid-in-dying law has won the prestigious Sundance Film Festival award for best American documentary film.
Compassion & Choices of Oregon Client Support Team member Linda Jensen both appears in the film and attended its first showing at Sundance. She shares her experience below.
Linda Jensen - Client Support Team Member
But I had another reason to be there: To see the world premiere of a documentary I had been involved with for the past three years – Peter Richardson’s film about Oregon’s Death with Dignity law entitled “How to Die in Oregon”. This was also the source of my apprehension.
I am a retired registered nurse and have been a client support volunteer with Compassion & Choices of Oregon for five years. When Peter approached CCO and outlined his proposal for the documentary, there were a number of concerns about how we could participate and still protect the privacy of our clients. When asked, my decision was based on my belief that the time had come to move beyond dramatized images, conjectures about “death panels”, and prevalent misunderstandings about physician assisted death.
Along with several of my fellow volunteers, we began telling Peter our stories, giving him insight into the underpinnings of the work we do. He listened and asked questions and, with the permission of several committed clients, turned his camera to the task of capturing their stories.
It is an often repeated observation amongst my C&C colleagues that the people who come to our organization for assistance in navigating the requirements for physician aid in dying (PAD) are exceptional individuals. Aside from the statistics reported by the Department of Health (reporting that is required under the terms of the law), which characterize them as well-educated, with a median age of 72. 93% are affiliated with hospice care and 97% are insured. We also observe other proclivities. They tend to be take-charge types, deeply reflective, staunch individualists, and exceptionally self-aware. Some have religious faith, most consider them selves “spiritual”. They are usually the strongest individuals in the room – the most able to look the reality of their situation squarely in the eye.
Peter was able to vividly capture a representative cross section of these extraordinary individuals and tell a story which has been called by viewers and reviewers “unflinching”, compassionate, heroic and sensitive.
Still, while there was little doubt about the timeliness of Peter’s movie amongst those of us who have been doing this work over the past 13 years; there remained uncertainty about how the public would react to a close up look at what goes on when people are grappling with end-of-life decisions, especially the choice of PAD. The hope was, of course, the film would help demystify, educate and help a wide audience come to informed (if not unified) conclusions about these issues.
So, as the lights went down I was, as I have said, excited and anxious. My client, Cody Curtis, who died in December 2009, is the main focus of the story. I had not seen the film as some others who appear in it had. I expected to use most of my tissues and was glad to be sitting with people I knew would understand my reactions.
Then came the surprise. Yes, it was intense and emotional, but 107 minutes later my eyes were dry. (Not so amongst the majority of the audience.) I was actually “happy” with a serene sense that I had just witnessed these amazing people, some of whom I have had the privilege of coming to know and call friends, demonstrate for the world to see, what the real meaning of death with dignity is – what a so-called “good death” can look like.
