Reverend Death
Director: Channel 4
Year: 2008
Country: UK
Duration: 100 mins
Rating: N/A
Filed under: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, Documentary
The Reverend George Exoo is a seemingly jolly, but not very successful Unitarian minister from Beckley, West Virginia who has drifted into helping non-terminally ill people commit suicide. George claims that so far he has helped more than 100 people commit suicide. George extols the afterlife and explains how he looks forward to his own death because it will be a great adventure. At the start of filming, Jon Ronson believes that everyone has the right to terminate their own lives. However, as the film progresses, Jon begins to change his mind and also starts to have serious reservations about what Rev. George Exoo does and about the motives of his new assistant Susan, who claims she'll help practically anyone kill themselves if the price is right. 'For George it's a calling,' she says. 'For me it's a business.' At the same time, George is facing extradition proceedings for his part in a suicide in Ireland. (Aired Channel 4, Monday 19 May 2008, 22:00)
This Biomedical Ethics Film Library is being presented in partnership with European Medical Students' Association (EMSA)
Film Topics
- Abortion (9)
- Biomedical Research (14)
- Bionics and Cyborg Technologies (8)
- Care of the Elderly and Geriatrics (3)
- Creation Identity - Sperm, Egg and Embryo Donation (22)
- Eugenics and Genetic Enhancement (37)
- Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (28)
- Human Cloning (31)
- Human Dignity - Full Moral Status (10)
- Human Embryology (16)
- Human Genetics (14)
- Human Sexuality and Biology (1)
- Human Transplantation (17)
- Human-Nonhuman Hybrids and Chimeras (11)
- Neuroethics and the Neurobiology of Moral Responsibility (1)
- Organ Trafficking (13)
- Psychiatry (34)
- Surrogacy (5)
- Xenotranplantation (9)