''How to Die in Oregon'' is a 2011 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

produced and directed by Peter Richardson. It is set in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and covers the state's Death with Dignity Act that allows terminally ill patients to self-administer barbiturates prescribed by their physician to end their own life, referred to as

assisted suicide Assisted suicide is suicide undertaken with the aid of another person. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or other healthcare provider. Once it is determined that the p ...

by opponents and medical aid in dying by proponents. Richardson spent nearly a year with 54-year-old Cody Curtis, an

OHSU Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Medi ...

faculty member with liver cancer, as she grappled with the decision or not to take a lethal dose of a barbiturate.

Release

The film was released in January 2011 at the

27th Sundance Film Festival The 27th annual Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20, 2011 until January 30, 2011 in Park City, Utah, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah. The festival opened with five screenings, one from each c ...

and began airing on HBO later in the year. Peter Richardson, a native Oregonian, got the idea to produce the film as the state's law was upheld by the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

in the 2006 case

Gonzales v. Oregon ''Gonzales v. Oregon'', 546 U.S. 243 (2006), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court which ruled that the United States Attorney General cannot enforce the federal Controlled Substances Act against physicians who prescribed drugs, in compl ...

Critical reception

''How to Die in Oregon'' was well received by critics, currently holding a 100% "fresh" rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 10 reviews. The film won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentaries at the

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:How To Die In Oregon 2011 films 2011 documentary films American documentary films Assisted suicide Assisted suicide in the United States Documentary films about suicide Euthanasia in the United States Films about euthanasia Films scored by Max Richter Films set in Oregon Films shot in Oregon Filmed suicides Sundance Film Festival award winners Documentary films about Oregon 2010s English-language films 2010s American films Films about disability