From what I understand, it depends on your definition of "promote." Clint Eastwood's character spends a lot of time trying to convince Swank's character that she has reason to live on, but he does eventually sneak into her room and shut her respirator down. The finish (and this is one reason commentator Terri O'Brien believes it crosses the line into promotion) is Morgan Freeman's character writing to Eastwood's estranged daughter, telling her about the incident "so you'll know what kind of man your father is."
A big question for me is why (according to O'Brien ad an NPR radio commentator who's a hospital chaplain) there's no acknowledgement that Swank's character could refuse treatment if she wished and be extubated. That may not be promotion, and it may be done for story purposes, but making it look like she's trapped on a respiratior when she has no desire to be on one certainly could make assisted suicide laws look more attractive to uninformed viewers.
They did a similar thing on CSI recently, where the whole plot depended on a young man being forced to have a kidney transplant...but the young man was 23, and could have refused the treatment. Interestingly, that plot also hinged on Catholic views of life/death/medical ethics.
Actually, I meant to address you both with the previous post of mine. Since I am backtracking, I also would like to say that both of you have calmed down, and are trying to be civil and re-establish communication. I am acknowledging you both for this, since it is the kind of posting that needs to be encouraged.
John, your comment that Mr S 'hit a nerve' is a wonderful technique to more fully communicate, and, in my experience, enables the other poster to relax a defensive posture and accept the points of the issue.
Ya never know. You may find out that you two are more alike and in agreement on many issues.
There are several plot holes surrounding her death. Have you seen patients worse guarded in your whole life? I have never seen a hospital where someone could come into a back entrance and enter someone's room. But the whole point of what he did was to honor her wishes, and show the closing of the relationship. I would guess that many of the jumps made in the plot around this are the fact that FX Toole who wrote it probably didn't know a lot about these situations.