The dying game

Wherever he is right now, Ramón Sampedro must be smiling. His life story was nominated this week for an Oscar. Two weeks ago, it won Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes.

Directed by Alejandro Amen·bar, The Sea Inside deals with invalidity and euthanasia in a manner that has drawn stinging criticism from disabled groups and the Roman Catholic Church.

Sampedro took his own life in 1998 and "the whole Spanish society was in shock when we saw the images of him", says Javier Bardem, who plays the former sailor in the film.

A quadriplegic for three decades after a diving accident left him paralysed from the neck down, Sampedro campaigned for six years for the right to die. A published poet whose journal, Letters From Hell, became a Spanish best-seller, Sampedro took his fight to the Constitutional Court in Madrid and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Both denied his wish.

The open letter he left after his assisted suicide caused ethical turmoil in Spain, resulting in the formation of a senatorial committee on euthanasia. It paralleled the British case of Diane Pretty who, stricken with motor neurone disease, was denied her right to die by UK courts in 2002.

Amen·bar insists he "didn't want to focus on the legal issues" but his film has increased pressure on prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to propose a change in Spanish law, and perhaps across Europe. "I expect it to happen soon," says Amen·bar. "I suspect the government is preparing something. I think society is prepared for it."

Bardem, 35, endured daily five-hour make-up sessions with British artist Jo Allen (also up for an Oscar) to turn himself into Sampedro. Having lived the part, he is now unsure whether he wants the law to be changed. "I would like to open a debate and see very clearly what the situation is and what we can do.

"There are many people like Ramón Sampedro and there are many others who want to live, and they both have to be listened to. Euthanasia is a delicate issue. But, in a case like this, I don't see why institutions - such as the most fanatical and extremely violent institution ever called 'the Church' - are able to say no to that. Are you telling me your life doesn't belong to you but belongs to God? Excuse me, what the fuck are you talking about? God doesn't come in to wake me up. God doesn't do anything for me. God exists because we think of him."

Bardem and Amen·bar have made few friends among the Catholic establishment. David DiCerto of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops rates the film "morally offensive". Others are outraged by the comic portrayal of a wheelchair-bound priest who tries to debate euthanasia with

Sampedro. Amen·bar says he "didn't want the priest to be a caricature of the Church" but he felt impelled to rebut Church attacks on Sampedro. "If you see priests on TV, talking about Ramón's case ... they say he was a coward and was trying to bring attention to himself."