BBC plan to screen an assisted suicide

At 9pm on BBC 2 on 13 June the BBC is planning to show the film ‘Choosing to Die’.

The programme is being presented by Sir Terry Pratchett, a long time campaigner for assisted suicide. It will show Peter Smedley, a motor neurone disease sufferer, taking his own life on camera at a Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

The documentary is not the first time that someone has allowed their death to be filmed for TV. Sky previously showed the death of another motor neurone sufferer, Craig Ewert, at Dignitas.

The BBC has broadcast five programmes since 2008 portraying assisted suicide in a favourable light.

Dr Peter Saunders, of Care Not Killing, has warned that the screening will breach “both BBC and international guidelines on suicide portrayal and risks encouraging further cases among those who are sick, elderly or disabled.”

“This latest move by the BBC constitutes a misuse of licence-payers’ money and looks like evidence of a blatant campaigning stance.”

Bishop Nazir-Ali, writing for the Times, said that:

“We know now that the death was messy, with the dying man choking and gasping for water and the request being refused by those “helping” him to die.

“Those who are arguing for assisted suicide to be legalised have some very important questions to answer. Do we really want agents of death, such as Dignitas, in Britain? If it is to be a relative or friend who administers the lethal dose, how can we establish intention? How can we, in a world of mixed motives, know that such a person was motivated wholly by compassion and not other interests?

“The Judaeo-Christian tradition is a surer guide. “Thou shalt not kill” is about acknowledging the gift and dignity of human life — which, whether ours or another’s, we do not have the competence to take. Let us not throw away this loving teaching because of the misplaced soft-focus idealism of BBC film-makers.”

Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said:

“It is a sad day when the BBC plans to show an assisted suicide on television, and we hope that it will be the last time that they ever do so. This culture of death must not be accepted. We need to protect the dignity of life and the well being of the elderly and vulnerable.”

Sources:

Bishop Nazir-Ali: Do we really want agents of death in Britain?

Care Not Killing Press Release

Peter Saunders (blog): Pratchett programme is further evidence of BBC bias and will fuel more suicides

Daily Mail: 'He drinks a liquid, falls into a deep sleep and dies'... the moment a man commits suicide in front of Sir Terry Pratchett

Resources:

Christian Concern: End of Life

Action:

Please contact:
 

Please communicate that the film should not have been shown and that a film which promotes care, not killing, should be produced and shown quickly with as much publicity, because:

• As the UK's public broadcaster, the BBC has a duty to be impartial. This film, backed by the celebrity endorsement of Terry Pratchett, romanticised, glamourised and idealised assisted suicide. It was not an accurate portrayal, was one-sided and  shows the BBC as a cheerleader for assisted suicide;


• The airing of this film breached both BBC Guidelines and  the World Health Organisation Guidelines on portraying assisted suicide and was therefore reckless and irresponsible;


• This film disguised the impact of assisted suicide and runs the real danger of encouraging further suicides amongst those who are sick, elderly or disabled, documented as the Werther effect, suicide contagion, or copycat suicide, which is well recognised in the medical literature.