Posted on 12/09/2008 3:31:21 PM PST by wagglebee
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- A national controversy in Britain has been sparked by news that a British television show will reveal footage of 59-year-old Craig Ewert taking his life at a euthanasia clinic in Switzerland. Meanwhile, Ewert's family will escape any charges in connection with his death despite the UK's law against assisted suicide.
Ewert had motor neurone disease, known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's syndrome in the United States.
The footage shows him putting his ventilator on a timer, taking a lethal cocktail and dying minutes later.
Ewert's suicide at the Dignitas clinic was filmed for a documentary called Right To Die - The Suicide Tourist that will be shown on the Sky Real Lives channel Wednesday night.
In the video Ewert says, "I am tired of the disease but I am not tired of living. I still enjoy life enough that I would like to continue but the thing is that I really cannot."
This will be the first occasion on which a suicide has been shown on British television.
Wesley J. Smith, a leading American bioethicist says Ewert's comments and others show that he is suffering from depression that should have been treated rather than resorting to suicide.
"Clearly, this was a suicide caused by depression and despair--and fear of the future," he said. "I wonder if he or his family consulted with hospice professionals who could have assured him that he wouldn't have to suffer terribly unable to cry out."
John Beyer director of Mediawatch UK, told the Daily Mail newspaper he worries the program will promote euthanasia and violate British law.
"If this program is not impartial and promotes euthanasia then it would be in breach of the act - in short it must not influence members of the public or a change in the law," he said.
Ewert paid Dignitas a few thousand dollars for the suicide, cremation and shipping his ashes back to the UK.
There was a time when depression was the FIRST THING doctors treated when a patient was suicidal.
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Excuse my ignorance but THERE ARE EUTHANASIA CLINICS IN SWITZERLAND!!!!
What is this world comming to?
I don’t know if I would want to live to the end with that disease. That’s rough.
I used to tease my British friends by running a series of posts on the moral decay in Britain subtitled “Britain Death Watch”, on a small libertarian forum.
It looks, it is now a moot point.
U.K. Govt. must be thinking. Hmm...We can demostrate our power by showing a killing with the BY LINE of
IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU CITIZEN
-—Comitee of Public Safety.
OK, I’m confused..... (not really)
It’s OK to kill someone if it’s called *euthanasia* but not OK to administer the death penalty to some subhuman savage who murders, tortures, and rapes.
right.....
How sad that he felt that this was his best option and thought death would be a release.
I'm guessing that about now he's wishing he had waited a few more years.
Snuff films go mainstream. What a world.
Sounds like he did it to himself.
Sounds like he did it to himself.
Yes, and much to the consternation of many, the world did not devolve into a mass suicidal frenzy.
Sad, isn't it, that other countries are now more protective of a patient's rights than we are?
“”Clearly, this was a suicide caused by depression and despair—and fear of the future”
yeah, dying a slow agonizing death might cause those symptoms.
Wesley J. Smith, a leading American bioethicist lawyer and anti-suicide activist says Ewert's comments and others show that he is suffering from depression--a diagnosis made despite Mr. Smith not being a physician--that should have been treated--as was probably the case--rather than resorting to suicide.
There was a time when people understood that doctors can't cure everything, including depression.
And I see nowhere that it says he did not receive treatment for depression. And I don't know if Wesley is
R.I.P., Mr. Ewart
A father of two grown children who supported his choice, Ewert voices no regrets about ending his life in the film and says suicide is the only alternative to "utter hell."Who here is sadistic enough to insist that this man...
"Once I become completely paralyzed, then I am nothing more than a living tomb that takes in nutrients through a tube in the stomach," he says. "It's painful."
"I wonder if he or his family consulted with hospice professionals who could have assured him that he wouldn't have to suffer terribly unable to cry out."
Maybe word is getting out that such assurances are false.
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