LIFE AFTER
A film by Reid Davenport
SYNOPSIS:
Disabled filmmaker Reid Davenport (I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE) trenchantly probes the legacy of Elizabeth Bouvia — a disabled California woman who, at the age of 26, sought “the right to die.” Her 1983 case provoked a national debate about the value of disabled lives, and Davenport sees echoes in chilling contemporary cases of disabled people dying prematurely — at their own hands and from a broken health care system. Through moving interviews and rich archival material, LIFE AFTER looks critically at where progressive values of bodily autonomy collide with the devaluing and fear of disabled lives.
DIRECTED BY:
Reid Davenport
PRODUCED BY:
Colleen Cassingham
RELEASING AT FILM FORUM (NYC) ON JULY 18TH
Sales & Distribution Contact: Colleen Cassingham | colleen@multitudefilms.com
Publicity Contact: Jacki St. Thomas | lifeafter@mprm.com
Logline
In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport investigates what happened to Bouvia and her story’s disturbing relevance today.
Synopsis
In 1983, a disabled Californian woman named Elizabeth Bouvia sought the “right to die,” igniting a
national debate about autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. After years of courtroom trials, Bouvia disappeared from public view. Disabled director Reid Davenport narrates this investigation of what happened to Bouvia and her story’s relevance today.
LIFE AFTER coalesces the missing voices of the disability community in the contemporary debate about assisted dying. Davenport looks at the ways that disabled people have and continue to die prematurely—whether murdered by a hospital in the case of Michael Hickson in Texas, or with the support of parents and community in the case of Wisconsin teen Jerika Bolen. Davenport’s exploration
brings him to Canada, where safeguards have been lifted to allow disabled people unprecedented access to Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), even if their deaths are not reasonably foreseeable. In Ontario,Davenport interviews disabled computer programmer Michal Kaliszan, who contemplated MAID when his only alternative was entering an institution.
In a society where ableism and poor healthcare can limit options, the autonomy of a disabled individual is often compromised. LIFE AFTER demonstrates how assisted dying may not represent choice when oftentimes it is seen as the only option.
Director’s Statement
I’m a filmmaker in New York City, living in a progressive milieu where conversations about the "right to die" hinge on treasured values of choice and bodily autonomy. But as a disabled person, I can sense people’s undisguised fear of disability just below the surface. What’s a hot button dinner party topic for some is utterly sinister for me, as I see people in my life exhibit a higher tolerance for the deaths of
disabled people than for non-disabled people. The decision to make LIFE AFTER was a deliberate one, precisely because of the number of issues it raises, which transcend the issue of assisted suicide.
After I discovered the case of Elizabeth Bouvia almost a decade ago, she became one of my reference points for the contemporary debate around assisted dying. I thought about her when I came across stories in the US about disabled people being either allowed to die or murdered without consequence. I thought about her as I watched in horror in 2020, as Canada began to allow disabled people—many
impoverished, out of options—to take their own lives.
As Elizabeth continued to cross my mind, I wondered if there was more to her story. LIFE AFTER is an attempt to recontextualize a national news story that was forgotten just as quickly as it broke. Bouvia's life, as I suspected, has much more resonance today than her public saga initially revealed. Her life needs to be remembered in its entirety, with the recovered pieces excavated in this
film.
Her story offers a provocation: why is it acceptable to give disabled people the means to die, before supporting them in the chance to live? As we mobilize for four years of hyper-political vigilance around reproductive rights, state violence,
economic inequalities, human rights and Palestinian displacement, people must also engage with the ableist systems that are isolating, impoverishing, and, yes, killing disabled people. I hope LIFE AFTER reveals the cognitive dissonance in advocating for “death with dignity,” so long as systemic oppression
denies many disabled people life with dignity.
Reid Davenport
Director, LIFE AFTER
Background
Assisted dying is often considered a matter of individual choice, but when examined from a disability standpoint, the issue becomes rightfully more complex. Forty years after Elizabeth Bouvia sought the right to die, inequities that disenfranchise disabled people remain embedded in every aspect of society.
Disabled people by and large remain unemployable in an ableist job market, while government support holds them significantly below the poverty line. The U.S. and Canada have a long history of eugenics that continue to impact legal and medical industries - amplified by the financial incentive to encourage death. And disabled people disproportionately experience clinical depression, which can skew decision-making.
In the U.S., assisted dying is currently legal for people with a terminal diagnosis in 10 states and Washington D.C. In 1997, Oregon became the first state to pass assisted dying legislation. Tellingly, the top five reasons doctors give for their patients’ assisted suicide requests over all reported years are not pain or fear of future pain, but psycho-social issues that are well understood by the disability
community: “losing autonomy” (90%), “less able to engage in activities” (90%), “loss of dignity” (72%), “burden on others” (48%) and “losing control of bodily functions” (44%) (2022 Report, page 14).
Canada has the most liberal assisted dying laws in the world. In 2022, Canada expanded access to its Medical Assistance in Dying regime to include people whose deaths are not immediately foreseeable but who have a "grievous and irremediable medical condition” - namely, disabled people. In 2027, it is
set to expand to people with mental illness and “mature minors” with disabilities. The intensity and breadth of Canada's MAID program has led to condemnation of its program by UN human rights experts and disability rights groups in Canada.
LIFE AFTER is not an argument against assisted suicide, nor does it propose a neat solution to these complex problems. But it does help untangle this contradiction from a disability rights perspective.
We hope the film raises questions about the meaning of dignity, what constitutes discrimination and equity of rights, and ultimately, what a caring society looks like.
