On Wednesday, legislation that allows terminally ill New Yorkers to opt for an assisted suicide is set to come into effect. The state’s Medical Aid in Dying Act is the culmination of work by many — and a work of art may have paved the way.
Released in the U.S. in 2025, Pedro Almodóvar’s film “The Room Next Door” tells the story of how Martha (Tilda Swinton), who has terminal cancer, enlists her friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to help her die. Set in a fictional New York prior to the legalization of medical aid in dying, assisted death is framed positively, with Martha’s decision to die an act of dignity and self-determination. Ingrid is an honorable and moral friend who facilitates her death while staying in a neighboring room.
Our cross-cultural research shows that films, short videos, and other media dealing with assisted dying circulate in predictable patterns. At moments when public opinion is shifting in favor of legalization, cultural resources that foreground physical suffering and valorize choice and control often dominate public discourse, while also narrowing the frame of debate.
For instance, when Brittany Maynard — a 29-year-old white, upper-middle-class woman from California — was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2014, she left her family and friends and moved to Oregon to have the option of an assisted death, which wasn’t legal in her home state. Maynard partnered with the advocacy group Compassion & Choices to make a short video, “The Brittany Maynard Story,” which provoked an outpouring of empathy for her situation and helped trigger legislative change in California — where assisted suicide became legal in 2016 — and beyond. The story was cited in legislative discussions in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany, and Austria. In Chile in 2015, 14-year-old Valentina Maureira, inspired by Maynard’s case, recorded a YouTube video pleading with President Michelle Bachelet to authorize her assisted death, stating she was tired of living with cystic fibrosis. The video went viral, prompting a presidential hospital visit and igniting right-to-die debates in the country.
