Mademoiselle Nigot and the Doctor

Lisette Nigot from France lives in Australia. She is 79 years old and does not want to reach the age of 80. ‘I don’t want to grow older and go to seed.’ She confirms that she is not ill, has never had any pain, is never depressed, but ‘I can hardly wait to die’. She demonstrates the homemade plastic bag with a rubber cord that she could put over her head, ‘but I would look like a chunk of ham’. She prefers to turn to the Australian doctor Philip Nitschke, who has been an advocate of euthanasia for years. He developed a do-it-yourself device, a kind of mask that works on the basis of carbon monoxide. Nitschke travels around the world to bring his product to people’s attention during World Right to Die Conferences, on CNN (‘New suicide machine’) and in his workshops, which interested people are obliged to attend. Nitschke’s apparatus creates a lot of commotion, but in the well-documented, sometimes shocking film, Australian director Janine Hosking – without explicitly taking sides – stays on the side of Nitschke and his supporters. ‘My entire life, I’ve aimed for a high quality of living. Now I want a high quality of dying. It is great to finally have a choice, after a lot of suffering.’ (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)