Oscar nominees have often included films which support euthanasia and assisted suicide. This year a documentary short, “The Last Campaign of Booth Gardner”, seems to be the only one. The editor of BioEdge confesses to being a bit mystified at how Oscar nominations work, because the film doesn’t have its own website or a trailer, isn’t even listed on the production company’s website, and hasn’t screened in a single cinema theatre. Apparently it will be screened on HBO, but a date has not been set.

The production company, Denver-based Just Media, specialize in documentaries about social justice issues.

The star of the film is Booth Gardner, governor of Washington from 1985 to 1993, heir to the Weyerhaeuser fortune, and a victim of Parkinson’s disease. He successfully directed the Initiative-1000 campaign to introduce assisted suicide into Washington in 2008 – although ultimately he would like a law which permits physician-assisted suicide for anyone who wants it, whether or not they have a terminal condition. Stay tuned. Oscar hype will help to make the film better known. ~ HT to Derek Humphry