This week's episode of NBC's Law & Order offered a sympathetic portrayal of a woman who kills her father with dementia.
The episode, "The Hardest Thing," on Thursday begins with an old man peacefully listening to the music of Handel. Someone with a pistol walks slowly up the stairs to his room and then shoots him in the back of the head. The incident is made to look like a robbery.
It turns out that the murderer is the elderly man's daughter, Victoria Beyer (Katie Lowes). According to her, she did it at his request because he had been diagnosed with dementia. His physician testifies on her behalf.
Defense Attorney: What was his condition by the time of his death?
Physician: He came to see me a few weeks before he died. He reported that his episodes had gotten more pronounced, that it had progressed beyond a point that he was comfortable with.
Defense Attorney: Did he ask you to help him commit suicide?
Physician: Yes.
Defense Attorney: What did you say?
Physician: I told him no. Physician assisted suicide is currently legal in ten states, but New York isn't one of them. I wish I could have helped, but I wasn't willing to risk losing my license.
The doctor has no moral qualms about killing, only concerns for her professional standing. There is no indication that she attempted to find him the therapeutic care he needed to prepare for a natural end of life.
On the stand, Beyer describes shooting her father as "an act of love."
Beyer: Being smart and accomplished, strong, it was his identity, who he was as a person. He refused to become a lesser version of himself. He wanted to end things on his own terms while he still had his dignity.
Defense Attorney: And you agreed with that?
Beyer: Not at first, and certainly not the way that he wanted to do it. At first, I didn't even think that he was serious. But then he showed me the gun he bought.
Defense Attorney: So he's the one who purchased the gun?
Beyer: I was horrified. He had it all planned out. He begged me. I had never seen him like that. It broke my heart. I know that it's hard to understand, but what I did was an act of love.
That "act of love" was also conveniently an act of insurance fraud since it was made to look like a robbery.
Prosecutor Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy) decides to reduce Beyer's charge from murder to manslaughter when he experiences a "change of heart." His change of heart happens after he rejects a feeding tube for his comatose father in the hospital.
Upon letting his own father die of starvation and dehydration, he feels more sympathetic to Beyer.
In an era when countries like Canada are killing thousands of vulnerable people with assisted suicide programs like MAID, the manipulative propaganda of "The Hardest Thing" feels particularly disturbing.
We just ended four years of elder abuse in the White House, during which the media pretended a likely dementia patient could be president of the United States. Now a television show argues it is more "dignified" to just shoot a dementia patient in the head.
Compassionate and dignified end-of-life care, rather than elder abuse or murder, is actually possible for those experiencing cognitive decline. To recognize such inherent human dignity, however, we must reject the twisted messages of left-wing media and entertainment.
