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Laura Urbin
Extra Credit Movie Questions
ALHE 4060
Dr. Masini
July 17, 2006
- The Sea Inside
- The protagonist, Ramon, wants to die…what is your view of assisted suicide.
As few of you realize, this is one of the emerging dilemmas that YOU will personally deal with in practice, i.e., in
Oregon a person may have Rx-scripted OD dosages of barbiturates to assist death (the legality of this is contested by the
Federal government, but quite a few people have used this technique to expedite a ‘planned death’). State your view and defend or contest assisted suicide.
- My views on this subject have changed over the years. I used to think
that some people should be allowed to use assisted suicide, such as those who are terminally ill in their last days suffering
from unbearable amounts of pain, but now I do not feel that I support it. Every
person is going to one day face an illness that causes them to die or some other situation that brings about their death. It is something natural that happens and cannot be stopped. In the same sense I do not feel that it should be brought on prematurely.
In this movie I saw what a difference that Ramon was making in other peoples lives, such as Rosa’s, even though he could
not see that. God has a purpose and plan for every person’s life and we
may never know what that purpose exactly is especially if we choose to end our life early, before God is ready for it to be
over. I know that there are times when situations seem unbearable but God knows
the reason behind ever situation that we endure and I strongly believe that he will never give us anything that we cannot
handle and that is why I no longer believe in assisted suicide.
- My doc research was specifically focused on folks like Ramon; however, none of my patients ever discussed expediting
their death with me. Give three issues that struck you as different about the
way Ramon viewed his life in the movie, considering foremost that he wanted his life to end.
- One issue that struck me was when Ramon made the comment that “accepting a wheelchair would be like accepting
crumbs of what my freedom used to be.” Ramon had ways to live, although
it did not seem like it to him, other than lying in the bed day after day. There
are many people in situations just like his that have become accustomed to using specially made wheelchairs and other devices
in order to try to live as normal a life as possible. Ramon never gave the world
a chance again after his accident and therefore did not see a reason to live.
- Another issue that struck me was when he made Rosa unhappy in his bedroom and she
went running out of the house. Ramon at this point said “that’s right
run, you can…” Yes, it would definitely be very hard, harder than
I could ever imagine, to not be able to use your entire body below your neck. But,
Ramon still made this comment because of the envy he had, when the comment should not have been made. Rosa had come to talk to Ramon about why life was still worth living and he had become offended because
he did not think that anyone could understand why he felt the way he did.
- Ramon could not even look out his window at birds without imagining a situation dealing with death. He would see the birds and then go into imagining he was flying over the land until he came to the sea. The sea, he said, gave him life and took his life.
Ramon had stated in the movie that he wishes he could have drowned the day that he broke his neck instead of living,
because a death by drowning would have been a sweet death. Ramon would not let
himself realize that even though he was paralyzed he still had a family that cared so much about him and women who wanted
to take part in loving him. But Ramon would not have any of it. I feel that Ramon would not let him realize the good things because he did not want anyone to have the
chance to change what he wanted to do, die.
- The ladies seemed attracted to Ramon. State 3 features that made him attractive
to the ladies in this film, remember that there are more than three ladies he deals with (be specific and name them in the
context of your answer for points).
- Julia – Julia was an attorney who had been brought in to help build the case
for Ramon’s assisted suicide. We find out in the movie that Ramon had chosen
her because she had CADASIL (cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy) which
is a degenerative disease. He felt that this would connect them to each other
more than another attorney who did not have any type of terminal illness. Ramon was
attractive to Julia because of the way that he could make her “float away” in a sense from her illness into the
“dreams” that he had of a healthy life.
- Rosa – Rosa was a woman with 2 children who
had seen Ramon on television talking about his wanting to commit assisted suicide. Rosa had never had love in her life and after going to meet Ramon fell in love with him. Ramon was attractive to Rosa because
he listened to her and seemed to help her emotionally work through situations in her life. I believe that Ramon was also attractive
to Rosa because of his thick headedness. This
made her want to work harder to try to make him realize that he should live which caused the stronger attraction. Rosa was very much emotionally distraught and was looking for any love she could get. Ramon made a comment to her at one time that “the one who truly loves me will help me.” In a way this is the reason that Rosa helped him
in the end…in order to prove her love for him.
- Manuela – Manuela was Ramon’s sister-in-law. Manuela was Ramon’s care giver 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
She saw Ramon’s good days and his bad days. Because of the fact that she heard more from Ramon than anyone else she found more or less his situation attractive
and wanted to help him in any way. She
also seemed to have accepted the fact that Ramon counted on her for almost everything he had to do during the day and this
attracted her. She had come to the point where she did not want anyone else
to help her with Ramon because she needed the fact that he needed her.
- I feel that every woman that came into contact with Ramon had attractiveness
to him. They were attracted to his situation and after meeting him were attracted
to his personality and to his talents, such as his writing skills. He had an
ability to appeal to everyone. This is why I feel that if Ramon could have realized his talents to the extent that they truly
were he would have seen more of a reason to continue living.
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