Excuse me for watching the movie and thinking it stands alone as entertainment and its message is little more than the traditional movie message.
I looked up the writer of the original story. It appears that he is very nearly Eastwoods character. I doubt a 69 year old man who has been in boxing for his entire life really cares too much about euthanasia. It does appear that he does care about boxing though, and he wanted to tell a good story with boxing involved. The producers didn't seem to have a severe liberal bent in the movies they produced. Several had a close working relationship with Eastwood who is also a producer as well as a conservative.
Really! As they say, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make hime drink!" I've laid out the argument that there's more to this film than a simple touching story. You don't want to dig any deeper than the surface. Why? You're not interested? Afraid? You're comfortable with the status quo? We have lots of elephants in the living room, and Hollywood is one of them.