OMG

It's Public Health film festival this week. 

I volunteered at the festival and
was  given a very important job

Yesterday Michael and I saw a very interesting film about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in San Fransisco in the 80ies and 90ies. 

Today the film was about 'How to Die in Oregon'. There it is legal to get help dying... It was awful, absolutely! In the first clip we saw a man getting help and we saw him dying. Terrible!.. Yesterday I blew my nose constantly because I'm sick, today it was because I was crying... Nothing but terminal ill people, not something one should watch alone..

Not that I am against "physician-assisted suicide" (not that a physician actually have to be present (which is a bit scary I think)...) or death with dignity or what people choose to call it, I haven't really made up my mind (I am too much of a coward to think about it). But people should not have to "choose" to die because they do not "want to be a burden" on their family... Or like this guy in the film who had non-curable prostate cancer, whose insurance company would not pay for his 2nd round of chemo therapy as it was not expected to prolong his life long enough (they would only pay for therapies that would prolong a terminal patient’s life with three years I think it was).. But, in the same letter, they stated that they would (like to) pay for this “suicide drugs” should he choose this option… That is just ridiculous… He went to the media with his story and his insurance company (of course) reconsidered their decision and ended up paying for his 2^nd round of chemo… (Which did not help him and he did few weeks later, but that is not the point!)