A short stay in Switzerland
That stay being short because the visitor, Dr Anne Turner, killed herself at one of the Swiss clinics which provides assisted suicide.
This true story was the basis of a 90-minute drama which aired on BBC 1 on Sunday night. Was it any good? Well, yes, it was because the subject matter was so difficult. A woman, who happens to be a doctor, is diagnosed with a progressive and uncurable neurological disease shortly after her husband has died of a similar condition. The chances of that happening are one in thousands, but still.
Anne Turner, played by Julie Walters, tried to live with the increasingly debilitating effects of the disease but ultimately decided that suicide would be a better way to go. The other side of the argument came from her three children and a friend who disowned her as a coward. Turner’s own maxim in the drama was: “Courage.”
Exploring both the strength and fatal weakness of suicide, A Short Stay in Switzerland was compelling viewing. Walters is more than a national treasure so I hesitate to criticise her performance. It was almost flawless. Suffice to say the accent wavered a little between home counties and broad northern, as did her speech as the palsy-afflicted victim. Sometimes it was more coherent than others. Maybe that’s a symptom of the disease. Maybe Walters is too much of a luvvie to slur an entire scene on camera.
Overwhelmingly, this drama suggested that the many emotions involved in dying or losing someone you love can be more clear cut when that death is by appointment. Everyone got to say what they wanted, without any sudden, messy demise and things left unexpressed.
I expect if it were possible in this country, euthanasia might escalate just as Caesarean-section births have. That might not be a problem. But if and when we routinely control our own births and deaths we are dangerously close to believing we can control everything in life and that just ain’t so.
