Dissertion in Law and The Humanities Lead by Fabiana Di Fazio

Mare dentro

A glaring example of Law in Cinema

…….. Reflecting on the highly sensitive issue of euthanasia…

The last words of Ramon

The inner voice of “Mare dentro”

expresses his thoughts

Lord Judges,Political and religious authorities, What does the Dignity mean for you?

Whatever the response of your conscience will be, you have to understand that for me this is not live with dignity!

At least, I would have liked

to Die with Dignity!

Today, Tired because of the

indifference of Institutions,I am obliged to do it secretly,

As a Criminal!

You should know that the mechanism that will lead to my death was strictly divided into small actions, each of which doesn’t constitute a Crime, each made by a different Friendly hand.

If the State insists on punishing those who helped me, I suggest to cut that hand, because that was my only contribution! The head, I would say, the conscience, is mine!

As you can see, close to me there is a glass of water, which contains a dose of potassium cyanide. Once drunk, I will have ceased living, giving up my most valuable asset, my Body.

I believe that Life is a Right, not an Obligation as was in my case, Forced to endure this Painful situation for twenty-eight years, four months and some days.

At the end of this period, I take stock of my life and the accounts don’t balance with

Happiness!

Only the time, that I lived almost always against my Desire, will be, by now, my Allied. Only time, and the evolution of the consciences, will decide if my claim was reasonable or not!!

Analysis of the film “Mare dentro”

You’ve just heard the last words that Ramon Sampedro, the main character of the film “The Sea Inside” decided to address to those people who denied him the right for the euthanasia, few minutes before he let himself died. Ramon was a Galician fisherman.At the age of 25, he got paralyzed because of a dive from the Praia das Furnas, so he started writing and he had been asking for the assisted suicide for 29 years.

He endlessly claimed that suicide represents a right and this right were being denied so He started a lawsuit.His appeal was rebutted and all Judges of the Court of La Coruna underlined that everyone who helped him in dying would have committed a crime.So Ramon planned a legerdemain to dye so that nobody may be prosecuted and,drinking a cocktail with potassium cyanide,he died in 1998.

With his death he proved that the will power of a man morally and psychologically destroyed Overcomes the frivolous rigors of a morality that flies over the human freedom. “A life that eliminates the life is not freedom” is remembered to Ramon,”, “but also a Life that eliminates Freedom is not Life” ,Ramon says. The whole movie could be summed up with a quote from the same: “When you can’t escape, you learn to cry while you are smiling!”

This poignant phrase is able to grasp the inner suffering that are hidden behind the personalities of quadriplegics.However, this sentence is not able to stir to the depths the law that turns out to be cynical,cold,merciless.The evocative vitality of the director Alejandro Amenabar’s view make us understand why Ramon wants to die: “Because there is no music,no voice, no feelings for all who aren’t able to be and recognize themselves”.