Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

The film “Me About You” has been doing well with audiences at the box office. Even though its a well told story, its underlying worldview is troubling. The hero of “Me Before You” is a handsome, wealthy young man who falls in love with a young girl and wants to be with her, but instead decides to order his own assisted suicide to end his life in a wheelchair. The film portrays the death of this young man as a beautiful act of sacrifice, not as a morally confused act of selfishness. But human dignity doesn’t depend on youth or independence. It is God-given and inalienable. And we should realize that our humanity is not diminished by disability. The popularity of such a story reveals our cultural confusion and how we value human life, however imperfect it may be.