''I'M DYING an awful death," says talk-back caller Steve from Point Lonsdale.
"You're what, sorry?" interrupts a slightly disbelieving Jon Faine.
"I'm dying an awful death of cancer," Steve confirms in his measured though emotion- choked voice.
Even those who didn't hear that extraordinary exchange on ABC radio in July last year would have become aware of the plight of Steve Guest. Suffering terminal cancer of the oesophagus, Guest's bid to end his life reignited a public debate over euthanasia.
The 58-year-old died two weeks later after his public appeal brought forward an anonymous supporter who provided him with barbiturates. As it is an offense under the Crimes Act to assist any person to take their own life, Guest's death is the subject of a police investigation.
Davor Dirlic had been at work for several months on what would become a two-part documentary, Do Not Resuscitate, when his producer, Lizzette Atkins, heard the caller on the radio. Two hours later Dirlic was on the phone to Guest and the next day he was filming in the ill man's Point Lonsdale home.
Do Not Resuscitate also profiles 63-year-old Mary Walsh, who has a 10 per cent chance of surviving ovarian cancer and has resolved to end her life should the cancer return, and 50-year-old Judy Bayliss, a former schoolteacher crippled with multiple sclerosis.
Dirlic describes himself as "a spiritual human being" and denies the existence of any religious - or, for that matter, atheist - agenda in making the documentary. "For me compassion is number one; to try to understand your fellow human being is number one," says the Croatian-born filmmaker, who relocated to Melbourne in 1989, two years before his homeland erupted in civil war.
The sole purpose of his inquiry, he says, is to bring about a fuller understanding of an issue that few are willing to talk about. "Everyone has their opinion, but when the family sits around the dinner table they don't talk about death and dying. Death is a mystery that hasn't been resolved and never will be. It's the only event in our lives that is certain and inevitable and ironically we have no control over it.
"As a filmmaker I was extremely interested to see how it feels when somebody knows that death is around the corner, and he or she has to confront themselves, their families and society with their own mortality."
He wanted "to know these people before they die and to follow them up, to go on their journeys with them and to learn how it feels to face your own mortality". Dirlic regards Guest, Walsh and Bayliss as underdogs, disadvantaged because their views are not being heard.
Despite Dirlic's intentions, the documentary strayed into politics when Guest was invited back to Faine's program. This time, Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, a devout Catholic with well- known anti-euthanasia views, was brought into the on-air discussion. Tonti-Filippini, too, has an incurable illness that requires dialysis every second day. Dirlic says he was shocked when the ethicist exposed his needle-marked arm and revealed his ailment.
"That is when I understood how complicated the whole matter is, that it's not black and white. This is why Nic has a place in the film . . . The fact that he was facing his own mortality helped me see the whole thing from a different angle."
But to this day, Dirlic does not understand Tonti-Filippini's disapproval of Guest's wish to end his life.
What he learned from making this sobering though strangely life-affirming documentary is that "you don't have to agree with someone, you don't have to support this side or that side. But it's important to listen to people and try to understand them and accept them as they are.
"It's about compassion. And it's a mystery. To some extent we can control dying as a process. But the most important thing is compassion and acceptance."
By Paul Kalina. The Age.
"You're what, sorry?" interrupts a slightly disbelieving Jon Faine.
"I'm dying an awful death of cancer," Steve confirms in his measured though emotion- choked voice.
Even those who didn't hear that extraordinary exchange on ABC radio in July last year would have become aware of the plight of Steve Guest. Suffering terminal cancer of the oesophagus, Guest's bid to end his life reignited a public debate over euthanasia.
The 58-year-old died two weeks later after his public appeal brought forward an anonymous supporter who provided him with barbiturates. As it is an offense under the Crimes Act to assist any person to take their own life, Guest's death is the subject of a police investigation.
Davor Dirlic had been at work for several months on what would become a two-part documentary, Do Not Resuscitate, when his producer, Lizzette Atkins, heard the caller on the radio. Two hours later Dirlic was on the phone to Guest and the next day he was filming in the ill man's Point Lonsdale home.
Do Not Resuscitate also profiles 63-year-old Mary Walsh, who has a 10 per cent chance of surviving ovarian cancer and has resolved to end her life should the cancer return, and 50-year-old Judy Bayliss, a former schoolteacher crippled with multiple sclerosis.
Dirlic describes himself as "a spiritual human being" and denies the existence of any religious - or, for that matter, atheist - agenda in making the documentary. "For me compassion is number one; to try to understand your fellow human being is number one," says the Croatian-born filmmaker, who relocated to Melbourne in 1989, two years before his homeland erupted in civil war.
The sole purpose of his inquiry, he says, is to bring about a fuller understanding of an issue that few are willing to talk about. "Everyone has their opinion, but when the family sits around the dinner table they don't talk about death and dying. Death is a mystery that hasn't been resolved and never will be. It's the only event in our lives that is certain and inevitable and ironically we have no control over it.
"As a filmmaker I was extremely interested to see how it feels when somebody knows that death is around the corner, and he or she has to confront themselves, their families and society with their own mortality."
He wanted "to know these people before they die and to follow them up, to go on their journeys with them and to learn how it feels to face your own mortality". Dirlic regards Guest, Walsh and Bayliss as underdogs, disadvantaged because their views are not being heard.
Despite Dirlic's intentions, the documentary strayed into politics when Guest was invited back to Faine's program. This time, Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, a devout Catholic with well- known anti-euthanasia views, was brought into the on-air discussion. Tonti-Filippini, too, has an incurable illness that requires dialysis every second day. Dirlic says he was shocked when the ethicist exposed his needle-marked arm and revealed his ailment.
"That is when I understood how complicated the whole matter is, that it's not black and white. This is why Nic has a place in the film . . . The fact that he was facing his own mortality helped me see the whole thing from a different angle."
But to this day, Dirlic does not understand Tonti-Filippini's disapproval of Guest's wish to end his life.
What he learned from making this sobering though strangely life-affirming documentary is that "you don't have to agree with someone, you don't have to support this side or that side. But it's important to listen to people and try to understand them and accept them as they are.
"It's about compassion. And it's a mystery. To some extent we can control dying as a process. But the most important thing is compassion and acceptance."
By Paul Kalina. The Age.
