A Short Stay In Switzerland is the new film based on a true story directed at influencing the debate on assisted suicide. Actor, Julie Walters, plays Anne Turner, a retired English doctor, who was suffering the effects of degenerative neurological illness and in 2006 decided to take her own life at a Swiss clinic run by Dignitas. Having watched her wheelchair bound husband pass away through a similar degenerative illness, Dr Turner decided when she was similarly diagnosed, that she would not undergo the same kind of death when Dr Turner realised there was a simple drug-based solution to her suffering. The law in the UK forbids assisting a person to take their own life. Yet the film pictures others countries notably Switzerland, as providing a so called civilised escape from terminal conditions, employing the more dignified term of assisted dying.
The movie was intended to be shown shortly before MPs were due to vote over the Coroners and Justice Bill on whether to clarify the law so it is clear that aiding and abetting suicide is illegal. The debate in Parliament comes after the Crown Prosecution Service decided last month not to prosecute the parents of Daniel James who helped their paralysed rugby player son to commit suicide at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Peter Saunders, a spokesman for Care Not Killing, said: “The timing is very clear. These things are carefully orchestrated to have the maximum influence on public debate.”
However the BBC defended the film. A spokesman said: “I am unaware that the BBC scheduled A short stay in Switzerland to coincide with any Parliamentary matter. The drama makes decisions and the decisions taken by Dr Anne Turner is one of several open to her.”
At CCFON we welcome the Government's move to tighten law on assisted suicide. On 10 December 2008, the Prime Minister twice stated his opposition to the legalisation of assisted suicide. He said that he would never support legislation to permit assisted suicide that might put sick or elderly people under pressure to end their life. His comments came as a television documentary showed the death of Craig Ewert, 59, a motor neurone sufferer. This was the first time that footage of an assisted suicide, including the moment of death, had been broadcast in Britain
The Prime Minister said: “I believe that it’s necessary to ensure that there is a never a case in the country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assisted death or somehow feels it’s the expected thing to do. That’s why I’ve always opposed legislation for assisted deaths.”
The law on assisted suicide is there to protect innocent people. Someone who has been assisted to commit suicide will no longer be able to give an account of whether coercion was involved. If people are vulnerable they may feel under pressure to die and the fear is that the right to die could all too soon become a duty to die.