Editor's note: Crucial plot points of the movie "Million Dollar Baby" are revealed in this article. If you haven't seen the movie, and do not want to know how it unfolds, read no further.

Conservative pundits have called "Million Dollar Baby" a "million dollar lie." Disability-rights activists are angered by the film's "closely guarded secret," and the Catholic News Service classified the film "morally offensive."

Why such a fuss over a movie that many critics have hailed as a masterpiece? Two words: assisted suicide.

The film's powerful third act confronts this ethical dilemma when a character is severely disabled and begs for euthanasia. Despite director Clint Eastwood's masterful handling of the material, he's now in the right-to-die hot-seat.

In an official statement, Marcie Roth, CEO of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, writes: "[Eastwood] uses the power of fame and film to perpetuate his views that the lives of people with disabilities are not worth living."

Eastwood's heard it all before. In 2000, the actor-director engaged in a much-publicized battle when his Mission Ranch Resort in Carmel, Calif., failed to meet standards of accessibility required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Eastwood fought for controversial changes in ADA legislation, and the complicated case prompted activist Mary Johnson to write the book, "Make Them Go Away: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve, and the Case Against Disability Rights" (Avocado Press, 2003).

Many of those attacking "Million Dollar Baby" have yet to see the film, which is opening in wide release just as the right-to-die debate is reaching critical mass. Steven Drake, a researcher for Not Dead Yet (a group opposing assisted suicide), claims Eastwood's film promotes "the 'better dead than disabled' mindset."

Others argue that "Million Dollar Baby" is an ethically complex film with strong themes of love, family and redemption.

Catholic News Service reviewer David DiCerto wrote, "The film is not a polemic in favour of assisted suicide. The pain and devastation of those involved is achingly evident."

And Tim Gilmer, the editor of the nation's leading magazine on disability lifestyles, New Mobility, offers a cautiously hopeful outlook: "My concern is that the viewing public may get a negative impression of what it's like to be a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic, which could perpetuate a harmful stereotype. On the other hand, perhaps the movie will hold an important issue up to the light, and the truth — that people with serious disabilities usually embrace life — will eventually emerge."

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net