Two leading Christian organisations – the Christian Medical Fellowship and the Christian Institute – have sounded the alarm over a chilling new Japanese film about voluntary euthanasia.
Plan 75 is directed by Chie Hayakawa. The fictional film addresses issues surrounding Japan’s rapidly-ageing population and portrays a future society in which anyone aged 75 can simply place themselves in the calm, efficient hands of the state and be euthanised. Those with money and family can do so at the end of a two-day premium package, after spa treatments and special meals. Those without are given enough cash to pay for basic funeral costs before lying down on a camp bed in a dark, silent room divided by curtains where they quietly acquiesce to being gassed to death.
Japan is ageing faster than any other country in the world, boasting one of the highest life expectancies. Women typically live to 87 and men to 81. Almost 40% of its population is over 60, a figure expected to continue expanding as the population shrinks. Couples in Japan now have an average of just 1.3 children – far below the 2.1 children needed for populations to remain stable.
