Better Off Dead?
BBC1
You would expect a documentary about assisted dying, made by the actress and activist Liz Carr, to be hard-hitting, packed with detail and strong views. And so it was. What I wasn’t expecting was for it to be quite so funny.
This smart, spiky, slightly sarky star of Silent Witness and The Witcher was first seen whizzing about on her wheelchair with a sign on the back saying “Bitch on wheels”. She then delivered a searing denunciation of attempts to introduce new laws while also executing some neat barbs on the whole genre of campaigning film-making.
“Yes, it’s that time in the documentary where I go to visit my mum,” she said early on. And you could see in Pat Carr where her daughter got a lot of her fighting spirit. Reading diary notes from Carr’s childhood it was clear that when she contracted a rare autoimmune disease, aged seven, she changed from being a popular and lively member of her class and school drama group to someone who was withdrawn and often unhappy.
But one thing Carr was clear about throughout this powerful hour-long film was that she wouldn’t have wanted suicide to be a legal option, however sad she got. And neither did her mum. “I’m not going to lose you, no way,” her mother said when her daughter asked if she would have helped her go to Dignitas.
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Assisted dying — or assisted suicide, as Carr prefers to call it — will open the door to euthanising disabled people however many safeguards are introduced, she said. We also met her activist friends, who all made variations on the same point. For Carr, her campaign is about giving disabled people a better life, and not an “easy way out” to ease pressure on social care.
• We all have a human right to choose a good death
When Carr visited Canada, which already has the medical assistance in dying (Maid) policy, she had a tense encounter with a doctor who has helped 400 people to end their lives and who smiled rather unnervingly during the interview. There was a chewy debate, but also a moment beforehand for Carr to joke darkly to her wife, Jo, not to let her eat or drink anything in the doctor’s company. Wheeling down a ramp, Carr also quipped that it was a “slippery slope”, which was a decent visual gag as well as the principal thrust of her argument.
She debated thoughtfully with supporters of assisted dying, including the former lord chancellor Lord Falconer and the Times columnist Melanie Reid. However, the most eye-opening sequence came when Carr spoke to a young Canadian woman whose mother experienced what seemed like a breakdown and (very quickly) had her death assisted by Maid laws. It left her broken and consumed by unbearable guilt.
And yes, despite all this Carr remained a life-affirming presence who was always able to see the funny side. Even the soundtrack leavened the mood, featuring as it did the strains of the Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive and the James hit Sit Down. The latter, Carr said, was her favourite song. Although this was someone who was very much standing up for what she fervently believes.
★★★★☆
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