{"id":1803,"date":"2016-09-09T14:37:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T14:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tvndy.ca\/?p=1803\/"},"modified":"2018-11-06T01:36:30","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T01:36:30","slug":"webcast-archive-the-propaganda-of-hbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2016\/09\/webcast-archive-the-propaganda-of-hbo\/","title":{"rendered":"Webcast archive: The propaganda of HBO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1180\" height=\"664\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JMiGe7kxbFE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In this episode of <em>Euthanasia &amp; Disability<\/em>, Amy Hasbrouck and Christian Debray discuss:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>HBO: the \u201cdebate\u201d is nothing but propaganda<\/li>\n<li>An athlete considers euthanasia after the Paralympic games<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please note that this text is only a script and that our webcast contains additional commentary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HBO \u201cDEBATE\u201d IS NOTHING BUT PROPAGANDA<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>HBO\u2019s Vice documentary series recently presented \u201cRight to Die,\u201d a 27-minute \u201cdebate\u201d on assisted suicide.<\/li>\n<li>Less than two minutes of the program was dedicated to opposition to assisted suicide.\u00a0 The segment implied that the opposition in the U.S. was led by the Catholic church, and didn\u2019t even mention that disability rights organizations oppose the policy.\u00a0 The correspondent did admit that there is \u201csome evidence\u201d of a slippery slope in Belgium and the Netherlands.<\/li>\n<li>The documentary, narrated by correspondent Vikram Gandhi, is centered around the assisted suicide of Antoinette Westerink, a Dutch woman with a \u201cpersonality disorder\u201d whose euthanasia is shown during the segment.\u00a0 Ms. Westerink sees herself as a butterfly preparing to emerge from a chrysalis, and has no regrets about her impending death.\u00a0 However, her adult son and daughter are upset that the psychiatrist who approved her euthanasia did so after only three meetings, and did not consult her family before making the determination.<\/li>\n<li>During the segment, Vikram Gandhi speaks to Christina Symonds, a person who is as yet minimally affected with ALS.\u00a0 As he introduces her, images of \u201cLate stage ALS \u2018patients\u2019\u201d are shown; a person in a Hoyer lift, and others in hospital beds using external breathing assistance.<\/li>\n<li>Symonds shows her fear of becoming disabled when she says: \u201cThe only thing you\u2019ll be able to move, in the end, are your eyeballs. I don\u2019t want to go through that horror. And I certainly don\u2019t want to put my kids through that.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Her husband Teddy Symonds adds: \u201cShe doesn\u2019t want to sit back and be taken care of and be wiped and be fed.\u00a0 She wants to go \u2018I\u2019m done. It\u2019s not getting any better.\u00a0 Whatever was gonna work is not working anymore and that\u2019s where I draw the line.\u2019\u00a0 And if you have that ability, it\u2019s power.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Ned Delojsi from the California Catholic Conference is quoted twice, for a total of just over a minute\u00a0 (46 seconds then 20 seconds).\u00a0 Though he devotes most of his time to speaking about the danger for vulnerable persons, his remarks about faith are used first, to discredit him to the secular audience.\u00a0 Later, Theo Boer raises questions about the dramatic increase in euthanasia in the Netherlands during his 40-second on-screen appearance.<\/li>\n<li>Nelojsi\u2019s interview is followed by a quote from Christy O\u2019Donnell, a person with cancer who uses a wheelchair and states \u201cWhen they are sitting in this chair with a stage IV diagnosis and a child that they\u2019re leaving or a husband that they love, then they can make their own decision.\u201d\u00a0 Unfortunately the producers did not speak to those disabled people who are \u201csitting in this chair\u201d yet still oppose assisted suicide.<\/li>\n<li>Howard Glick, another person with a degenerative disease also expresses his fears over becoming disabled. \u201cWhat do I want to do, waste away in a wheelchair? Not even recognizing my children? Never mind the cost involved.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>As in many similar documentaries, the producers seemed to have their minds made up on the issue before they began to explore it, and so neglected to portray the arguments against assisted suicide and euthanasia fairly.\u00a0 They played upon public fears of becoming disabled, using the term \u201cdignity\u201d as the opposite of disability, and implying that the only way to retain control in one\u2019s life was to have assisted death.<\/li>\n<li>In addition, the producers made it clear that usual methods of suicide were unacceptable substitutes for the help of a medical practitioner, nor did they describe what happens when complications arise during assisted suicides and euthanasia.\u00a0 Instead, they promoted the suicide kits marketed by Derek Humphry, the founder of the Hemlock Society.<\/li>\n<li>The segment also downplayed the objections of doctors who oppose the practice as a violation of the principles of palliative care, lumping them in with the religious opposition.<\/li>\n<li>This is an excellent piece of propaganda, but not journalism..<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NEWS BRIEF \u2013 AN ATHLETE CONSIDERS EUTHANASIA AFTER THE PARALYMPIC GAMES<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Marieke Vervoort is a Belgian sprinter participating in the Paralympic games in Rio.\u00a0 She won gold and silver medals at the 2012 London Paralympics.<\/li>\n<li>She has declared that the Rio games will be her last, and says she is considering euthanasia because of the pain caused by her degenerative disease.<\/li>\n<li>As a citizen of Belgium, Vervoort may be eligible for euthanasia under one of the world\u2019s most liberal laws.\u00a0 She must convince two doctors that she has \u201cconstant and unbearable\u201d physical or psychological suffering that cannot be alleviated, and that there is \u201cno reasonable alternative\u201d to the situation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n   ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nThis week, we discuss a new documentary series on the HBO network.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2016\/09\/webcast-archive-the-propaganda-of-hbo\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Webcast archive: The propaganda of HBO&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2016\/09\/webcast-archive-the-propaganda-of-hbo\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Webcast archive: The propaganda of HBO&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[316,121,315,320,319,231,321,118],"class_list":["post-1803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-webcast-archive","tag-derek-humphry","tag-euthanasia-disability","tag-hbo","tag-hemlock-society","tag-marieke-vervoort","tag-olympics","tag-paralympics","tag-webcast","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1803"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3675,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions\/3675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}