Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to describe this powerful documentary about one man’s unimaginable decision to end his life.
Businessman Simon Binner, 57, died last October in Switzerland after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of motor neurone disease in January 2015 and given just two years to live.
As he left the hospital after the diagnosis, he knew immediately he wanted to go to a suicide clinic.
But his wife Debbie, family and friends struggled with his choice.
“I thought they’d be indifferent to the timing of my demise,” says father-of-three Simon in this poignant film.
“I was so wrong.”
Simon makes an appointment at Swiss euthanasia clinic The Eternal Spirit, setting his date of death to his birthday.
He even announced the date on business social network LinkedIn.
But for everyone else, it wasn’t such an easy decision.
“Getting on a plane and going to Switzerland, even the thought of it makes me feel physically sick,” we hear Debbie say.
“It’s terrifying, I feel so strongly inside that this isn’t the right thing to do.”
The film begins with Simon reading a letter to Debbie, an emotional voiceover as we watch his funeral.
We then backtrack, to clips of Simon as a healthy, extroverted family man.
“He puts colour in life,” says Debbie. And then we see him deteriorate, first losing his voice, and then the ability to walk.
“I sit and cry sometimes thinking about the things that I will miss,” says Simon in one particularly poignant moment.
Ultimately, the film follows Simon and his family to the clinic, where we see his final moments (although not the moment of death).
This will obviously spark up the right to die debate, but it’s also simply a moving film about a loving family facing a terrible choice.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/heartbreaking-how-die-simons-choice-7341760
I have just watched this and wow it is upsetting. But I feel it shows what the person wanting to die and their family go through. It must be so hard to watch some one close be so ill they want to die.
Businessman Simon Binner, 57, died last October in Switzerland after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of motor neurone disease in January 2015 and given just two years to live.
As he left the hospital after the diagnosis, he knew immediately he wanted to go to a suicide clinic.
But his wife Debbie, family and friends struggled with his choice.
“I thought they’d be indifferent to the timing of my demise,” says father-of-three Simon in this poignant film.
“I was so wrong.”
Simon makes an appointment at Swiss euthanasia clinic The Eternal Spirit, setting his date of death to his birthday.
He even announced the date on business social network LinkedIn.
But for everyone else, it wasn’t such an easy decision.
“Getting on a plane and going to Switzerland, even the thought of it makes me feel physically sick,” we hear Debbie say.
“It’s terrifying, I feel so strongly inside that this isn’t the right thing to do.”
The film begins with Simon reading a letter to Debbie, an emotional voiceover as we watch his funeral.
We then backtrack, to clips of Simon as a healthy, extroverted family man.
“He puts colour in life,” says Debbie. And then we see him deteriorate, first losing his voice, and then the ability to walk.
“I sit and cry sometimes thinking about the things that I will miss,” says Simon in one particularly poignant moment.
Ultimately, the film follows Simon and his family to the clinic, where we see his final moments (although not the moment of death).
This will obviously spark up the right to die debate, but it’s also simply a moving film about a loving family facing a terrible choice.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/heartbreaking-how-die-simons-choice-7341760
I have just watched this and wow it is upsetting. But I feel it shows what the person wanting to die and their family go through. It must be so hard to watch some one close be so ill they want to die.