AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

As the federal government begins to implement some $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts called for in President Trump’s budget bill, which gives massive tax breaks to the wealthy, we end today’s show with a new investigative documentary that examines the moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying that members of the disabled community could face. It’s called Life After, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Reid Davenport. As one reviewer put it, Davenport is uniquely positioned to tell the story: He himself has cerebral palsy. This is the trailer for Life After.

REPORTER 1: Elizabeth Bouvia is asking for help. Trapped in a useless body, she says she deserves the right to die, quietly.

ATTORNEY: And what was your purpose in being admitted to Riverside General Hospital?

ELIZABETH BOUVIA: Ultimately, starve myself to death.

REID DAVENPORT: The more I researched, the more I began to think that Bouvia was still alive.

REPORTER 2: Requests for medical assistance in dying are increasing across the country. We’re beginning to hear more stories about people feeling it’s their only recourse from excruciating circumstances.

MICHAL KALISZAN: I didn’t want to really end my life, but it really just came down to a matter of funding at that point.

ALEX THOMPSON: The health system is basically going to tell you, “You should kill yourself,” because that’s the cheapest option.

SARAH JAMA: Many people are afraid of disability. They’ve never had to interact with it before. The decision makers are really ruining our chances at surviving.

REID DAVENPORT: I fear that this film will be dismissed as cynicism. But the death of disabled people has been justified for so long.

MELISSA HICKSON: Doctors encouraged me to pull the plug.

REID DAVENPORT: This film is not about suicide. It’s about the phenomenon that leaves disabled people desperate to find their place in a world that perpetually rejects them.

UNIDENTIFIED: She’s very polite. She’s intelligent. She’s attractive. But so what?

REID DAVENPORT: I need to find her. There are too many unanswered questions.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s the trailer for the new investigative documentary Life After, directed by Reid Davenport and produced by Colleen Cassingham with Multitude Films. They both appear in the film. I spoke to them on Monday.

AMY GOODMAN: Congratulations on winning the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at Sundance, where the film premiered earlier this year. I wanted to start off by asking you about why you made this film and how it ties into this current moment, where we’re going to see something like, in the next few years, 17 million people losing their health insurance, with millions losing their Medicaid, Reid.

REID DAVENPORT: I read about — I read about Bouvia about eight years ago. I was interested and drawn to her story, because many disabled activists who identify as progressive also are against assisted suicide. So I was very interested in that friction. And then, when I figured out if she could possibly be alive, that was when I knew that this was a film. Unfortunately, this film is growing in relevance day by day, with the Medicaid cuts. Medicaid keeps disabled people alive, but barely. If you are on government assistance, you are probably below the poverty line, so cutting this back further will only deepen abject poverty and drive disabled people to early graves.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Colleen, if you can talk about your involvement with this film?

COLLEEN CASSINGHAM: Sure. Reid brought this film to me and to my team at Multitude Films back in 2020 or 2021, and it was around the time that Canada had just expanded its assisted dying legislation, made to include eligibility for disabled people on the basis of disability. And so, you know, I knew this was a film that we wanted to be involved with, just because of the sort of personal political perspective expansion it had for me. You know, I personally thought I was for assisted suicide legislation. It seemed like, to me, it was a matter of personal choice and bodily autonomy, which I’m deeply committed to. And it was working on this film with Reid that really changed my perspective to understand that these questions are really about what kind of society we want to be and how we want to care for and uphold each other’s dignity. And there are so many layers of ableism and systemic failure that influence the ways that assisted suicide legislation is able to be implemented that make it so dangerous for disabled people.

So, you know, with the Medicaid cuts on the horizon, the reason I feel this film is so important right now is because people with disabilities experience — already experience huge health disparities. And so, when you introduce a policy like assisted suicide, it takes a group of people who are already incredibly marginalized by our system and gives the institutions and the people with power a profit motive for denying those people care.

AMY GOODMAN: The film is particularly relevant here in New York, as Governor Hochul has a bill on her desk, which she has not yet signed. Can you explain its significance?

REID DAVENPORT: New York is said to be one of about 12 states that would allow assisted suicide for people who are terminally ill. However, we know that abuse happens. We know that disabled people who are not dying are able to use doctors to wriggle their way into this side, die prematurely. For example, people who have diabetes or technically are terminal without insulin, so that line can be used to allow someone with diabetes who is not dying to access assisted suicide legally.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to another clip from Life After. It’s with Melissa, the wife of Michael Hickson, an Austin man who in 2017 suffered an anoxic brain injury that made him blind and damaged his spinal cord. The hospital that was treating him wanted to end lifesaving measures when he needed to be treated for COVID at that Austin, Texas, hospital.

MELISSA HICKSON: Michael went into sudden cardiac arrest while he was driving me to work. As a result of that, he had an anoxic brain injury. He was blind and had a spinal cord injury that caused him to be quadriplegic. Several doctors kept saying to me, “It’s — you know, we can just let him go. You know, if you want us to, we can.” In fact, they encouraged it. My goal for him was to go to a place where they specialized in care for people with brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. That was never what they wanted. I was villainized for trying to get the care that Michael needed the whole time. I was always encouraged to let him go, to pull the plug, to not treat. It would just be easier.

REID DAVENPORT: Did you expect doctors to be discriminatory, or was this a shock for you?

MELISSA HICKSON: I think, as most people believe, that doctors are healers, that they’re there to help you get better. I never thought that a doctor would ever question life.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Melissa Hickson being interviewed by Reid Davenport, the director of Life After. At the end of this interview, Reid, you hug Melissa. Talk about why you reached out to her.

REID DAVENPORT: Initially, we reached out her because Michael’s story was so devastating, and it wasn’t getting the attention that it needed. And we were asking Melissa to bear some very deep, pretty new words. So, during the interview, I think it was just about trying to be a decent person, recognizing we were there to do something difficult, and trying our best to ease the pain and make it — to make it less hard.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to another clip from your film, Life After, where you speak to a Canadian man named Michal Kaliszan, who has spinal muscular atrophy. He lost his mother, who was his primary caretaker, and has considered dying through Canada’s MAID program. That’s M-A-I-D, medical assistance in dying.

MICHAL KALISZAN: When we heard mom’s diagnosis, I had basically three thoughts. My first thought was, ”OMG, mom’s going to die soon.” My second thought was, ”OMG, I’m going to die shortly thereafter.” And then I thought, ”OMG, how do I get my [bleep] together?” I didn’t want to really end my life. But, you know, it really just came down to a matter of funding at that point.

ASH KELLY: There’s a facade of universal healthcare in this country that claims to take care of anyone who gets ill. But the truth is, we have these points of crisis in our healthcare system where people are falling through, not cracks, but massive openings in the system.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Ash Kelly, a Canadian journalist. And before that, Michal Kaliszan said he didn’t really want to die, but since his mother was his main caretaker… Reid, in this story, what’s surprising, as it’s pointed out, is that Canada has national healthcare.

REID DAVENPORT: Yeah, I think, as Americans, and especially if you’re on the left, you look up to Canada as this more liberal country where everybody has healthcare. But their healthcare, even if it’s nationalized, is extremely overburdened, and it’s on the verge of collapse. Their wait lines are endless. It can take years to see a specialist or even a therapist. So, healthcare is by no means a guarantee in Canada.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Reid Davenport, director of the new investigative documentary Life After, and producer Colleen Cassingham with [Multitude] Films. The film has won major awards at Sundance. It’s at Film Forum in New York through Thursday and over the summer will be coming to many cities through one-night-only screenings, with conversations with movement leaders and activists and thinkers. The cities include Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Des Moines, Iowa, and Middlebury, Vermont. There will also be virtual companion screenings, as well, so the film will be accessible. You can check their website, LifeAfterFilm.com, for locations and dates. And you can go to our website to see our 2022 interview with Reid about his first documentary, I Didn’t See You There, in which he, as a disabled filmmaker, reflects on the portrayal of disability in media and popular culture.

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