Fascinating article in the Guardian today on the Swiss assisted Suicide organization, Digniatas. Most astaoundingly:
Since Swiss law allows assisted suicide, but not euthanasia (the difference being that the person who wants to die must actively take the dose himself), the act of voluntarily drinking the drug, mixed with 60ml of water, and the subsequent death is videoed by the Dignitas companions, who stay behind to deal with the police and the undertakers in the hours that follow.
Not to cheapen the discussion here, because these are people in real pain and it is a contentious issue with a lot of strong emotions that come up, but placing those emotions to the side for a moment: videoed? I take the above to mean that a lofty (are all Swiss organizations lofty or is that just the way those of us near sea level percieve them?) non-profit has a secret catalogue of videotapes of people drinking poison. I find this to be way gnarlier than even the choice of ”assisted suicide guy” as a professional calling. More importantly: How long before this footage is leaked? and in what context will it first appear? will it be a Geraldo segment? extreme-underground-video? pornography? home movies? Only time will tell, but my pessimistic impulse tells me that the first venues for these things will either be undergraduate art shows or the YouTube accounts of synth bands. The two most awful venues for exhibition of anything.
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