De Quem é a Vida Afinal?

This film is not even about life or death it is about power and is especially relevant these days what with the Oregon Death With Dignity Law controversy. It is a well-done film that masterfully lays out the issues involved. It is also a well-told story and in my book, that is the prime requirement for a good film.

I was born in 1997 and a couple of years later I was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Type 2.

Since I can remember myself I was not able to walk, move my arms by myself, being able to eat whatever I wanted (my swallowing was weak), move my head without having to be afraid that it would fall off to the side if I wasn't careful and so on. I was somewhat capable of doing things by myself and for anything else I needed my parents would help me out. I didn't mind being stuck on a wheelchair and not have the freedom to be independent for the rest of my life as long as I was partially limited by my disability. I woke up, my mom dressed me, put me on the wheelchair and we went to school. There, I could do everything by myself or with the help of my classmates/friends.

After I finished Elementary school my disability got progressively worse. One day, I was at my grandparents' house and I got sick. I got so sick the next day I couldn't breathe. And I couldn't breathe because SMA mainly affects the lungs, and mine were so weak at that point that no matter how hard I was trying to cough, the mucus inside my lungs couldn't come out and eventually blocked my trachea. Long story short - My parents came, I passed out on the way home, we went to the hospital (which to my BAD luck was on the way going home) and I am bed-bound with a tracheotomy and a ventilator ever since. All that happened when I was 14. I am currently 23. All I am able to move now are my eyes and my right thumb which I am currently using to control my trackball mouse. That's it. My whole life and mental health depend on a computer.

I could tell you more but it's very tiresome writing with one finger. Just know that I feel EXACTLY the same as Ken in this movie. But unlike him, I will never have a girlfriend, a job that I like, or the option to die and be free of this useless body.

This film may well deal with a taboo area of medicine which of course is patients control over their own death. The film deals with a very morbid subject area without descending into difficult viewing.Richard Dreyfuss's delivers a continum of comedy while not betraying the feeling of hopelessness felt by his character. Other than great dialogue and acting the film leaves the viewer questioning common sense notions of the rightieusness (probably spelt wrong sorry) of medical professionals as well as acknowledging the reality that the institution of medicine is a new religion that dictates its own values on the less powerful subjects in its claws (claws is too much isn't it). Great film!!!

Sane people can have the desire to die, it's an indisputable fact. In arguing why, "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" tries to balance a dispute so personal, that it seems bound to fail. And yet, it does not! The story features a sculptor who is left paralyzed after a wrecking car accident and ends up in a most undesirable situation. His status renders him incapable of being the person he once was and found in the impossibility to reconcile his former self with his current condition, Ken Harrison decides to die.

His quest is, most obviously, a difficult one. The doctors do not support him in his decision and in this debate - doctor::patient - it is where the film conjures the most solid arguments in its plea. Going beyond the usual ethical components of this choice, the film manages to assert a very personal position to the main protagonist, which therefore makes the whole experience one of anguish on a very personal level. And this is where it makes its point: there is no universal justification for death and the world has no right to interfere in the sphere of anyone's consciousness. Perhaps it is at times overly dramatic and it treats the subject with tantalizing care, but in the end, I felt the film balanced all the facts concerned in a convincing and compelling way, vividly portraying the painful demise of a strong mind in face of the cruelty of destiny. It might seem to take a stance on every man's right to choose his fate, but in the matter at hand (whether death by will is right or wrong) it emits no absolute messages.

Beyond everything, Richard Dreyfuss sustains an authentic feeling of intellectual pain, in his convincing performance. And it is only in pain and suffering that we can look into ourselves to understand how much we are willing to bear in this world and what makes us be. Suicide I do not believe a solution, but then again, I am on the other side of the river, where things seem filthy green, rather than nothing at all. We are so alone in death and pain, that nobody can truly claim to understand us.

I would say that this movie is very interesting.

May doctors let a patient die? Is it right to keep a person who wants to die alive?

These are two questions which this movie handles, and you have the possibility to agree or not. But wether you like the idea of letting a patient die or not, the movie really makes you think about all the angles in this case.

I would rate it 8/10.