the movie does NOT "promote" euthanasia. and thank you for being moderate, and stating that you haven't seen the movie. the movie, which is fiction, which is a narrative, shows a flawed, complex human being (Eastwood) who ends up in a moral situation where he is a loser no matter what he does. it's a struggle, it was the woman character's idea and wish, and he commits the act knowing that doing it will make him a lost soul--and after he has discussed it with his priest.
the amount of hysteria over this film has been incredible. as I've said elsewhere here, how many of us were outraged when the other side disparaged The Passion--prejudged and dismissed it without even seeing it.
According to Michael Medved (and my sister). He said the priest who argues against euthanasia is presented as a feckless twit. I'm boycotting.
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.
Always see as many movies as possible and decide what you think about them for yourself.