Two leading Christian organisations – the Christian Medical Fellowship and the Christian Institute – have sounded the alarm over a chilling new Japanese film about voluntary euthanasia.
Plan 75 is directed by Chie Hayakawa. The fictional film addresses issues surrounding Japan’s rapidly-ageing population and portrays a future society in which anyone aged 75 can simply place themselves in the calm, efficient hands of the state and be euthanised. Those with money and family can do so at the end of a two-day premium package, after spa treatments and special meals. Those without are given enough cash to pay for basic funeral costs before lying down on a camp bed in a dark, silent room divided by curtains where they quietly acquiesce to being gassed to death.
Japan is ageing faster than any other country in the world, boasting one of the highest life expectancies. Women typically live to 87 and men to 81. Almost 40% of its population is over 60, a figure expected to continue expanding as the population shrinks. Couples in Japan now have an average of just 1.3 children – far below the 2.1 children needed for populations to remain stable.
Hayakawa says her film is ‘far from impossible’. Asked about her own views on the issue of euthanasia, Hayakawa told The Guardian: ‘My feeling is not pro- or anti-euthanasia or assisted suicide. But I raise a question about the society that can be so inhuman to offer death instead of a way to help vulnerable people feel less isolated or afraid. To give them a reason to live instead of a way to die.’ She added: ‘I specifically made this film to avoid a programme like this becoming a reality.’
Although it does not actually endorse assisted suicide, disturbingly many of the actresses auditioned for the leading role said they would welcome something akin to Plan 75. ‘They wanted it for the security it would give them,’ she said. ‘Not because they want to get rid of themselves right now, but because they feel a lot of concern about being old and don’t want to be a bother to anybody, including their kids or family. They said that when they got dementia or they felt very sick, they wanted this option.’
Rhys Curnow of the Christian Institute said: ‘Assisted suicide campaigners will not like the chilling portrayal of incentivised euthanasia in Plan 75. While the film may be fictional, it has an important lesson to teach us. When a society accepts assisted suicide or euthanasia, it is denying the intrinsic value of human life. If certain lives are deemed not worth living, the “right to die” will soon turn into a duty to die. Already in our individualistic age, elderly, disabled and terminally ill people sometimes find themselves treated as a burden. This film should make us think much more deeply about human dignity and the value of life made in the image of God.’
Trevor Stammers of the Christian Medical Fellowship commented: ‘Although Hayakawa says she does not wish Plan 75 to become a reality in Japan, on its release many online commentators said this was exactly what was needed to solve Japan’s ‘problem’ with its high elderly population. With over a quarter of Canadians reportedly now being in favour of euthanasia on the grounds of poverty alone, are we witnessing how legalising the ‘right to die’ may be shifting into a duty to die?’
