Choosing to die

It’s difficult to remain indifferent after watching the documentary ‘Choosing to die’, broadcasted on BBC last 13th of June. It’s not only because the issue attracts a great deal of discussion, but also because at the end of the documentary it’s shown Peter Smedley’s assisted suicide, a 71 years-old millionaire hotelier who was suffering from motor neurone disease.

Peter share with us the moment of his death and drinks the lethal substance that will make him sleep and, then, die. He swallows the poison with no doubt, his hand doesn’t shake. His last words after being asked by the nurse were “I’m sure”. Later, would come the goodbye for his death’s witnesses and a message for her wife: “be strong, dear”. The more awkward moment was just before he fell asleep, when he asked for and was denied water. Those seconds probably made his wife a lump in her throat, who cried after realizing that her husband was slipping and he wouldn’t wake up anymore.

That is how was the end chosen by Peter Smedley, who wasn’t a terminally-ill patient, but it was visible his lack of independence. Maybe it was the main reason that drove him to the Swiss clinic Dignitas in order to end his life, a decision which was made, according to his words, without being depressed, but with mixed feelings.

For 12 years, Dignitas has helped more than 1.000 people to die. The assisted suicides take place in a residency provided by the organization and under the supervision of the assistants, who prepare the drugs, give advice about how it must be drunk, provide psychological support and keep patients company in their last moments of life. Patients must drink the drug by themselves to die within the law. In Switzerland, law doesn’t punish or prosecute people who help others to die, providing that the person who wants to die is aware, repeatedly express their demand to die and consume the lethal drug by themselves.

The legal gap that allows assisted suicide in Switzerland encourages those who live in the United Kingdom -where it’s forbidden- to travel to that country in order to go to Dignitas and die “legally”. However, die within the law is not cheap at all: people who require the Dignitas help must pay more than £10,000. According to the organization, the money is needed to pay the forensic analysis and the expenses for the funeral.

Lack of legal rights

The BBC was flooded with complaints after it screened the documentary, and there were plenty of comments of condemnation pointing out that the film was “pro-assisted suicide propaganda loosely dressed up as a documentary ", as the spokesman for Care Not Killing, Alistair Thompson, said. In spite those critics, the main theme of the documentary doesn’t want to “glorify suicide”, but to condemn the lack of legal rights suffered by those who decide that their life is not worth to be lived anymore and, therefore, want to die.

The lawlessness in the United Kingdom in this issue is forcing these people to hire the expensive services of certain organizations and die in another country, far away from home, in an impersonal residence like that one chosen by Smedley, located in an industrial area near Zurich. The criticized documentary shows that Dignitas is not an ideal option, it would be fairer to have the chance of dying at home or in the particular way a person has chosen.

This is a reality that exists. The easiest is to look the other way, but the government should stop doing this and face up to this problem by working on the regulation.

15M movement, from the outrage to the action

After the results of the Spanish local and regional elections which took place on May 22, the centre-right Popular Party was more than pleased with the victory, whereas the Socialists suffered heavy election losses.

Once the recount finished, everything was done that night, the elections were over.

Just the opposite was happening in the Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol. It could be sensed that the people from the called “Movimiento 15M” were intended to stay in the square, that movement just started.

People gathered around a megaphone used by citizens to express their major concerns, onlookers stopped to read the hundreds of protest signs, while many volunteers, installed in their makeshift stands, reported on the movement and collected signatures and proposals at the same time.

During the election’s night it was possible to walk through Sol square, as the protests of thousands of people in the days before the elections dissipated. Although the agglomeration decreased dramatically, several hundred people remained in the Madrid’s heart square and ended that day of protests in the camp with a silent sittingheld minute before twelve o’clock.

About twenty tents are still set up along the main camp, organized by working committees with no visible leaders and created spontaneously. “The intention was to organize ourselves, but we didn’t expect so much people would join us”, says a spokesman of the movement, who studied to install renewable energies and, after looking for a job in Spain without success, is determined to try his luck in Italy. Organization, precisely, makes up one of the foundations that support the survival of the camp established strongly on 17 of May as a consequence of the forced evacuation of the previous day.

Since that first time, committees were organized according to the needs of the camp. “As it has expended, the commissions have been extended. There is a children’s area, an infirmary, a mental health and natural therapies area with professional masseurs and psychologists...” says Sofia, a 26 years-old journalist who has lent herself to be a spokeswoman of the movement.


Although there are people ranged all ages, most volunteers working in the camp are educated young people who find in the movement an opportunity to show that they can organize and carry out their duties professionally.

The proof of that is that, in less than a week, a perfectly organized camp divided into committees has been created by the members of the 15M movement for self-management.

Thus, it has been established a legal committee constituted by lawyers to solve all sort of legal issues related to the protests and the camp; the commission of respect that is responsible for avoiding altercations and keep the square clean; extension to create links with other Spanish cities or overseas; the communications commission to inform the media; the information one to explain citizens what is the movement... in total there are about ten commissions which are constantly growing and changing, depending on the needs and the new proposals submitted by anyone who decides to go to Sol square with the idea of helping.

A different society, in Sol

Many say that in the Puerta del Sol has been created a mini-city. “At first it was a protest, but now it is a way to say that a totally different society is possible”, says a 19 years-old girl who is studying Occupational Therapy first year degree. She is working in the food commission: “we give food to colleagues working in the camp and then to others”.

Although poor naughty and very cunning people finds its place in the Sol’s camp (there are those who try to sell the food they get for free or try to get sandwiches without working in the movement), people’s solidarity is the protagonist. “If we need spoons, half an hour later we have lots of them”. And all this without money involved, “there are many people, of all kinds, who bring food. Everything works through donations, which is the only thing we accept. Sometimes we have to say not to people who want to give us more food, because we have plenty”.

Others try to give money, however, they have always the same answer: “we only accept donations ‘in kind’ so doesn’t get us wrong”.

The committees, in turn, are divided into working groups, which collect the proposals of the citizens who pass through the camp. These proposals are discussed by each working group made up by anyone who wants to participate and, after being unanimously approved, they are voted at the general meeting which takes place usually in the evenings and with the participation of several hundred people gathered in the square. Everything said, is written up in the minutes.

"We're deciding what we want", says a volunteer. At the moment there is such a volume of submissions that it is very difficult to develop a common manifesto. "We're not overwhelmed, is that there are many people who want to participate. We will stay at Sol square, at least, until Sunday, and then we want to organize meetings in the neighbourhoods and villages in order to revitalize the local communications, which currently are very weak”, says another spokesman for the 15M movement.

They are organized, but what they want?

Despite having no manifests, 15M members agree that democracy mechanisms for citizen participation don’t work. That’s why they claim the use of public spaces as a forum for debate. "Politicians do not represent us, only represent the interests of banking", complains a volunteer. "We are very tired, very tired, we want a change".

Some say they cannot find a job because they are “overqualified”, others want to reform the electoral system because it promotes two-party system; all agree that is should be removed the privileges of the political class. “My generation has seen no prospects, but has been now when we have realized that the situation is really bad, that’s why we have organized”, says a 21 years-old boy. Another spokesman states: "even if you aren’t affected by the crisis, you should be touched; this is not only about what can happen to you, this is as well about what happens to people around you. Your neighbour may be unemployed. We live in a society, we are social beings and we have to fight to achieve an universal social justice”.

"I was just hoping that young people did something, it has been necessary", says 71 years-old, Eugenia. "We didn’t know what was wrong with young people, why have not complained so far, but now I'm very happy about this movement, it's about time!", says excited 56 years-old Vicenta. The two disappear into the crowd, leaving a crowded Plaza del Sol which has gone from being a transit area to become, in just a few days, in an agora to discuss, debate and propose ideas.

*Published in La Opinión de Granada on 25/05/2011

Fighting poverty, from the laboratory

Development economics, it’s just theory without a scientific basis? Not for Esther Duflo, of course. This economist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) believes that by using random testing, similar to those utilized by the pharmaceutical industry, lies the key to create effective measures which determine the success of the aid programs.

Money, obviously, is important to fight against poverty. But it’s not the only thing. To Duflo’s view, the most important is to know what (and why) works and doesn’t work in the implementation of aid programs to make them the most effective possible. “In technology, we spend so much time experimenting, fine-tuning, getting the absolute cheapest way to do something, so why aren't we doing that with social policy?” – says Duflo in a speech organized by the MIT.

Since 2003, through the Poverty Action Lab, Duflo and her team has gathered real data in order to find answers to alleviate poverty. From this data, they have got really interesting results. For example, the efficiency of public benefits depends on the gender of its recipient; or that the acceleration of the rate of human capital is not matched with economic growth. Another research that has generated quite a lot controversy has been the measure of the ‘microcredit’ programme effectiveness, which is not really effective because only one out of eight people use a ‘microcredit’ to set a business that wouldn’t exist in any other way.

Social experiments to fight poverty

Using a ‘micro’ approach, Esther Duflo has made plenty of social experiments to fight poverty. In a MIT speech, the economist gives three examples to get an impression of her work:

Immunization. In spite of the existence of vaccination programmes that offer vaccines for free, there are yet at least 25 million children who do not get the immunization they should. This is not due to a lack of vaccines or because parents don’t care about their children, there are other determining factors that must be considered like, for instance, the distance of the vaccination centres or the survival chores that poor people have to face day by day. These factors make parents to postpone their children’s vaccination until it is too late. After carrying out several experiments of random selection, it was found that which made the best measure to get an increment in the vaccination rate was a simple kilogram of lentils, offered as a gift in response of going to a vaccination centre. Something so cheap could increase the initial vaccination rate by six times.

Malaria. To fight malaria, there are lots of programmes which distribute bed nets for free. Having realised that there were people who didn’t value this prevention measure (maybe just because it was for free) and they use them as fishing nets instead. Duflo’s team wondered until what extend it was the best to give bed nets for free. It was also important to know if people would buy them in the future in case they were no more for free. Should they be for free, then? After doing some experiments, they came to the conclusion that this ‘alternative’ uses were made by a minority and that the distribution of bed nets for free, in spite of decreasing, guaranties a greater rate of purchase in the long term.

Education. How to get children into schools? In Duflo’s words, education intervention can be applied in many different ways, for example hiring teachers, school meals, school uniforms, scholarships... but, what is the intervention which makes the best result? It was proved that by telling people the benefits of education, something really cheap, it was achieved the biggest schooling rate increase. Another finding less intuitive was the relation between worms and school attendance: intestinal worms make a considerable amount of children weaker and, as a result, they didn’t attend to school. By curing these children, the attendance was incremented considerably.

Thanks to her research, Ester Duflo is becoming one of economist more important in the field of development economics. Her name has been mentioned since 2009, when she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, otherwise known as a 'genius' grant. In 2010, Duflo was awarder with a John Bates Clark medal, which is considered a reliable indicator of future Nobel consideration.