For decades, she has been a powerful force in Vancouver's avant-garde and improvised music scene, but tomorrow, Elizabeth Fischer will bring her colourful life to an end.
The 68-year-old artist, writer, and musician — best known for her work with DarkBlueWorld and Animal Slaves — was having a banner year, with a retrospective exhibition of her work and a new book, when she began having pains in her chest.
Soon after, a terminal lung cancer diagnosis came. There was little to be done.
But instead of a painful death in hospital, Fischer decided to travel to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal. She raised much of the money for the trip at a fundraiser at Vancouver's Western Front, where she was surrounded by members of the local arts and performance community.
Fischer has always had a hilariously biting sense of humour, and it's on full display in a touching and powerful interview she did with Globe and Mail writer Robert Everett-Green last week. Here is a short excerpt; you can read the full Q&A here.
We all know we’re going to die, but usually not when and how. Has that knowledge changed you?
I don’t feel different. I’m the same person. I’ve lived freely all my life, I’ve done whatever I wanted, and I want to leave the same way, under my own agency, as easily as possible. I’ve had dogs that have gotten old and sick, and I’ve made sure they had a really nice exit, and I want the same for me! [laughs]
Why Dignitas? Why Switzerland?
They’re the only organization in the world that helps people from all countries. Everywhere else where assisted suicide is legal, you have to be a resident. Quebec is starting it in December, but you have to be a resident.
What will happen when you arrive in Zurich?
I will be sent to see a couple of doctors, and I might have to talk to a psychologist, to make sure I’m not doing this because I’m depressed. [laughs] On the last day, I’ll take a taxi to a house in the village where they’re located, and two people will be waiting for me. They’ll have a room set up, and they’ll bring me a glass of water with something in it. And then you drink that, and in five minutes you’re asleep, in 20 minutes you’re in a coma, and then you’re dead.
Does any of that scare you?
I’m not scared. It’s actually very comforting to know that you can end your life in some nice fashion, when you’re ready. What scared me was being too sick to travel, and getting stuck here. I’m probably going too early. I may have had a few more months to live, but I can’t take the chance.
Are you travelling to Zurich alone?
I have two friends who are going with me. We’re going to stop off for a week in Iceland, because I’ve never been there, and it’s the weirdest place I could think of. I don’t know if they’ll come in the taxi from Zurich with me, I’m not sure if they can, or if they can handle it. I’m more cheerful than they are, although they’re really moving up well. I forbid anyone to weep around me, but everyone’s welcome to tell me jokes. [laughs]
In the Q&A, Fischer also talks about the lack of assisted suicide in Canada, her atheism ("you have to make your own miracles," she says), and what she calls her "last performance." Read it in full here.
by Jennifer Van Evra via Electronic RSS
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