Fade to Black

Peter Short is the CEO of Shell Coles Express in Australia, a $6b a year business with more than 5,000 employees. On his 57th birthday he diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer and is told he has less than 9 months to live. His death, he learns, will likely be painful and undignified. After talking himself out of a violent suicide, Peter instead decides to take matters into his own hands by trying to source the lethal and illegal drug Nembutal. In his search for the drug he comes across Dr Rodney Syme, a 79-year-old who operates outside of the law, supplying Nembutal and providing advice to dying or suffering patients. Once he has the drug he turns his attention to sparking a national debate about voluntary euthanasia in Australia. Peter teams up with Dr Syme, politician Senator Richard Di Natale and other high profile euthanasia advocates to attempt to introduce a Federal assisted dying law in Australia. Peter starts his journey with all the gusto, fervour and determination of a successful business man, but he soon finds that political change can be long, tedious and frustrating. He learns that there have been 28 failed attempts to introduce assisted dying legislation in Australia over the past two decades and that this latest attempt will likely become the 29th. Despite gaining early momentum, Peter’s proposal is met with loud and sustained opposition from religious groups. They argue that allowing suffering people to end their own lives will lead to widespread abuse and moral breakdown in society. Peter’s own views are challenged when he meets Leslie Cunningham, an 80-year-old former school teacher who wants to die not because she is terminally ill, but because she is lonely and believes her life has run its course. The debate becomes even more complex and controversial with the views of Dr Philip Nitschke. In 1996, Philip Nitschke was the first person to legally help a patient die under a short lived voluntary euthanasia law in the Northern Territory of Australia. Twenty years on, Nitschke’s views have become too extreme for many advocates of voluntary euthanasia, believing that any competent adult – sick or otherwise – should have the right to end their own life with easy access to Nembutal. Peter decides to focus his attention on trying to get a meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbot. He thinks that if he can personally appeal to the highest lawmaker in the land he might increase the chances of a law passing. Eventually gets the Prime Minister’s attention but the result doesn’t get him any closer to seeing a change in the law. As Peter’s health declines he is faced with the harrowing decision about whether to die naturally or end his own life with the Nembutal he had acquired months earlier. While following Peter’s story, the film explores the issue of assisted dying from every angle with the perspective of major political, media and social figures in Australia.