Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Assisted Suicide - Britain's Sky TV Takes a Bold Step
The news that Sky TV is going to show a documentary titled "Right to Die" is perhaps a sign of changes taking place in the hearts and minds of people in Britain. The program is scheduled for broadcast at 9:00 PM (it is 4:10 PM in London as I write this). The documentary depicts 59 year old, retired professor Craig Ewert's final moments at a Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. His wife was at his side.
Guardian
*****
Live with dignity, die with dignity
--Dignitas
Of course, there are many who, for religious or other reasons, vehemently oppose such a choice being available to those who are terminally ill, do not wish to remain clinically alive when life becomes meaningless and voluntarily, in sane mind, make the decision to seek assistance in dying. The documentary is not going to convert them.
Guardian
- A documentary that appears to show the moment when a man dies after going through with an assisted suicide was strongly criticised yesterday by anti-euthanasia campaigners and a television watchdog.
- The film, which is being screened on the Sky Real Lives channel tonight, seems to show the moment when 59-year-old Craig Ewert, who had motor neurone disease, died. It is believed this would be the first time the instant of the a person's death in an assisted suicide has been shown on British television.
- Both the documentary maker, Oscar winner John Zaritsky, and Sky insisted that the film, Right to Die? - which is being shown at 9pm - is an important contribution to a vital debate.
- Ewert, a retired university professor from Harrogate, Yorkshire, travelled to Dignitas, the organisation in Zurich that helps people to die, because he did not want to spend the rest of his days in a "living tomb".
