BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

ADDICTED TO LIFE was filmed with extraordinary access to our main character, Marieke Vervoort and her close family and contacts, including her personal physician, Dr. Wim Distelmans, chairman of the Federal Euthanasia Commission of Belgium. It is a character-driven cinematic portrait, which will consider the powerful political issue of one’s choice at the end-of-life as inextricably bound with the texture of an individual life. We hope to draw a unique portrait of a character with disability, challenging traditional representations of athleticism in the process.

In this feature documentary, filmmaker Pola Rapaport and cinematographer Wolfgang Held intimately document this charismatic, audacious, and powerfully vulnerable athlete during the turbulent and triumphant moments of her final years. Marieke’s choice of medically assisted death contrasts dramatically with her fearless decision to continue to live life to the fullest. Facing opposition from friends and family, Marieke eventually convinces them that having control is what she needs to stay alive. 

Vocal about her experiences, Marieke becomes an inspiration within the disability community, and beyond. ADDICTED TO LIFE will push the conversation about end-of-life choices and disability rights, challenging traditional beliefs about what it means to live and to die.

CONTEXT

Nine countries now internationally and ten states, plus the District of Columbia in the USA, permit medical aid-in-dying, which remains highly controversial. Belgium, like Oregon, has been at the forefront of the “Death With Dignity” movement. The political debate about ending one’s life with medication touches at the heart of ethical, religious, and legal questions. Should we have control over the timing and quality of our own death?

Marieke Vervoort never intended to be a political activist in the right-to-die movement. But in finding a humane solution to her very personal questions about the end of her own life, she began to speak out and became an important participant in the larger debate about end-of-life choices. Through the lens of Marieke's story, this film examines existential and moral questions about how we die—and how we live. 

EUTHANASIA DEFINED

eu·tha·na·sia  from Greek: εὐθαν "ασία; “good death”: noun

Euthanasia is the term used in Belgium for legal medical aid-in-dying.

The term “euthanasia” means literally “good death”. It usually refers to a painless death for a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease. However in World War 2, the Nazis twisted the term “euthanasia”. It became a euphemism for their clandestine murder program, which targeted people with mental and physical disabilities.