Life After + debate

In 1983, Elizabeth Bouvia sparked a nationwide debate on the right to die. Now filmmaker Reid Davenport retraces her largely forgotten story and examines the unsettling realities behind assisted suicide. Through the personal perspective of a filmmaker with a disability, Davenport reveals a world in which death appears to be the cheaper and more accessible option than providing dignified care in an unforgiving capitalist system. The film amplifies the voices of people with disabilities that are often marginalized in debates about autonomy. Davenport explores the fragile boundary between personal choice and systemic pressure, where unaffordable care, poverty, and isolation can become arguments for death as the only solution available.

Debata: Tereza Matějčková – Philosopher and educator at the Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University. Author of the essay The Courage to Be a Burden. Is Euthanasia Dignified?; Robert Osman – Social geographer at Masaryk University and the Czech Academy of Sciences. His professional focus is on the geography of disadvantage, the inclusiveness of public space, and the impact of the physical environment on the lives of people with disabilities; Martin Loučka – Psychologist and director of the Palliative Care Center, who works as an assistant professor at the Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University. He is the scientific secretary of the Czech Society for Palliative Medicine and is involved in research into quality of life and ethics in the care of the terminally ill.