Suicide Tourist By Craig Ewert

Death is a part of life that we as human have little to no control over. It may come suddenly, or it can be a process that takes months or even years. But what if you had the chance to choose how you would die and when you would die. Would you make the process fast and easy or would you use your time to reconnect with your family and do things you’ve never done before? For Craig Ewert, the decision came as one that had to be made. In 2006, Craig was diagnosed with ALS and was given a short time to live. Because of this Mr. Ewert decided that he would take matters into his own hands and die on this own terms. With the help of Dignitas, an assisted suicide company in Switzerland, he was able to do just that. In the movie, Suicide Tourist, we
As a part of the death system, we learned that there are many components to death. These include people, places, times, objects and symbols. In Craig’s case, people, places, and objects can be considered. A place can be considered because Craig and his wife travel from the United States to Switzerland in order to end his life. They do this because in the United States the laws for assisted suicide are a lot stricter than that of Switzerland. It is also noted that in the United States the only states that assisted suicide are legal in are Oregon, Washington, Vermont and California. Whereas in Switzerland, outsiders are allowed to come in to end their lives. In Switzerland, Craig had the freedom to end his life the way he
Normally some objects of the death system would be things like hearses or the electric chair. However, in Craig’s case, these objects would be Craig’s ventilator and the lethal dose of medicine that he used to end his life. The ventilator is considered because it was an object that kept Craig alive, however, it was also the object used in his death. With him turning off the ventilator, Craig administered his death in a way that most people would consider as him playing God. Ewert makes it apparent to address that just because he was ending his own life, it did not mean that he was playing God. He brought up how there is a major paradox in this discussion because every day doctors use objects like ventilators as medical interventions and are never considered to be playing God. Whereas when he turns off his ventilator he is considered to be playing God. So why is it that he was considered to be playing God, when doctors