Do you agree with the statement ‘everyone should be treated as equals’? Therefore does any of your sympathy go out to ken when he states ‘they do not treat me like a man, but a piece of vegetable’? Would you treat a terminally ill patient the same as a man? Ken still has ‘a mans mind’, still thinks about the one thing every man thinks of. Sex. ‘Every time Dr. Scott leaves the room ken goes ‘cold with embarrassment’. He states ‘You have beautiful breasts’, however why ask ‘if he embarrassed’ her? Ken is making his point clear that he is not treated as an equal, as well as Dr.Scott not being ‘in the presence of a man’. Who has the power? The answer is obvious. Dr. Scott. But why? Ken doesn’t understand either; he asks ‘Why are your opinions better off than mine?’ Why are ‘You more powerful than me?’ Why am ‘I in your power?’
The fact that Kens a sculptor has a very important role in the play. His life was his sculpturing, he lived for it. The director uses the fact that ken is a sculptor as a major theme in the film. The very first scene of the film was ken finishing his sculptor; this gives the audience suspense. The director uses kens powerful gift of art as a good enough reason to use it against the judge. ‘Sculpturing was my life, if I can’t do it anymore my life is over’. Ask yourself would you want to suffer when you don’t have to? How far would you go to stop all your misery? Dr. Emerson never gives up on Ken. He feels it might help to cure Ken’s clinical depression by bringing in a therapist. However this does not turn out for the best. It just gives ken another reason for ending his life. Ken becomes very serious and stressful when the therapist suggested that ‘sculpturing isn’t the only art you can do’. Any artist would know ‘You can’t just change your art’ like you change your clothes. Ken lived for his art like any other artist would.
Would you waste your time cheering up a clinically depressed man when he’s applying to die? I know that I would have given up on Ken long before the West Indian orderly. They attempt to cheer him up by taking him down to the basement. ‘Where are you taking me?’ the suspense of not knowing where they are taking ken, cheers him up. However not for long. The West Indian orderly takes the opportunity to hopefully make ken realise that his life is worth living. They take him down to the basement and perform a couple of hip songs whilst watching him smoke ‘dope’. You might be asking yourself what is the point in this scene? Why has the director put this scene in the film? It makes ken realise he will never be able to dance with woman any more. Yet again another reason ken feels his life is not worth living. Every slight thing anyone does to try and cheer him up pushes ken closer to wanting to die. Its just showing another thing he can’t do, another reason to die.
The law already permits patients to withhold or unwanted medical treatment even if that increases the likelihood that the patient will die. No one should be hooked up to a machine against his or her will. Dr. Emerson chooses not to listen to the law. He’s a ‘good doctor and he wont let anyone die’. Is this what a doctor needs to do to be a good one? Not to listen to their patients ‘treat them like a vegetable’. Ken ‘specifically ‘gave permission’ to Dr. Emerson to cancel his medication. He refuses to listen. Is this still an act of euthanasia? Dr. Emerson will only let people die if they have reached their life expectancy. Death is the enemy. ‘Do you all see this, this makes me sick!’ He still had ten long good years ahead of him. Does this make a good doctor? What does make a good doctor?
The director uses the weather to affect the inner feelings and the mood of ken. Lightening, rain and thunder continue to repeat when ken tells his girlfriend to ‘leave and to never come back’. This puts an effect on the film giving out sympathy to ken when you don’t wish to.
Ask yourself why does the director make ken the happy person he is?
It seems it’s just the people who don’t know Ken who think he is still alive.
‘He’s already dead cant you see that, he’s not the same person, just let him go’. ‘Life for me is over I cannot do the things I want to do’. ‘Theirs only one decent thing you can do and that is to let him go’. The point the director is trying to show is the fact Ken has lost everything he had and was. ‘He’s a different person’. It’s explaining to the audience that life is precious, you don’t realise how much until you’ve lost it.
Kens lawyer is applying for a writ of Habeas Corpus. Let us have your body.
What for you is the importance of this piece of legal Latin? How does it affect you everyday of your lives? Kens Lawyer uses this Latin sharply, who should have your body? The hospital? The government? Ken has a very powerful argument as well as Dr. Emerson they both expresses their opinions in front of the judge. Ken states ‘I do not want to die, as far as I am concerned I am already dead’. ‘I am only asking to be discharged from the hospital’. ‘The most important passion was my sculpturing for that I need imagination, I lost that’. ‘Its to bad my mind wasn’t paralysed, my minds become my enemy, it tortures me’. ‘I will never be able to direct a god dam thing’. If you saw a mulated animal on the side of the road you would shoot it, I am only asking for the same respect that you would show that animal’. ‘Why don’t you come back in five years and see this piece of work you have done today.’ The judge is persuaded by this distressing evidence in which to kill. If you were the judge would it persuade you? The judge ‘therefore ordered that he be set free.’ Dr. Emerson agrees with ken he ‘can stay at the hospital.’ Dr. Emerson hoping Ken ‘might change his mind’. Remembering death is his enemy.
The last scene of the film is very important. Note, you do not see him dying. But just laying in the hospital bed. Where the suffering started and is now ended. You must remember you cannot solve problems by getting rid of the people to whom the problems happen.
A lot of people are right in thinking that euthanasia is needed so patients won’t be forced to remain alive by being "hooked up" to machines. After all would you want to? So why does the film give the impression that people should be forced to stay alive? Shouldn’t people have the right to commit suicide? People do have the right and power to commit suicide; it is their lives there’re ending; it’s not anyone else’s. Worldwide, about a million people commit suicide. Suicide and attempted suicide are not criminalized so why is euthanasia? How is euthanasia different to suicide? Euthanasia is not about giving rights to the person who dies but it is about changing public policy so that doctors can directly and intentionally end another person’s life. Other people may call this murder. Euthanasia is therefore not about the right to die. But about the right to kill. But who has power over you? The government? Does the government therefore have the right to make people suffer? Euthanasia is sometimes considered as "medical treatment." If it is considered as ‘good’ medical treatment to a healthy person, the person therefore requesting it is too young or mentally incapacitated. However people have different opinions and to a healthy person it might not be considered as ‘good’ medical treatment. However wouldn’t euthanasia only be at a patient’s request? Isn’t death sometimes the only way to relieve constant pain? But what if you somehow can’t commit suicide and you would have to under go an act of euthanasia? Why cant euthanasia be the same as suicide? After all you get the same outcome. Death. Having said this suicide isn’t against the law, why should it be illegal to help someone commit suicide. Committing an act of euthanasia? Since euthanasia takes place anyway, isn’t it better to legalize them so they’ll be practiced under careful guidelines, making positive that none of them go wrong? I mean whose life is it anyway?
