BBC under fire for showing assisted suicide

Christians are among critics condemning the BBC after it broadcast the dying moments of a man committing assisted suicide.

The controversial Choosing to Die documentary followed author Sir Terry Pratchett’s journey to Switzerland where he witnessed 71-year-old Peter Smedley, a British man with motor neurone disease, being helped to die at the Digitas clinic.

Sir Terry, who has Alzheimer’s disease, told BBC Newsnight that the documentary could help viewers “make up their own minds” about assisted suicide.

“I believe it should be possible for someone stricken with a serious and ultimately fatal illness to choose to die peacefully with medical help, rather than suffer,” he told interviewer Jeremy Paxman.

The programme was defended by campaign group Dignity in Dying, which said it had been “deeply moving and at times difficult to watch”.

“It clearly did not seek to hide the realities of assisted dying. In setting out one person's views on the right to control our own deaths, it challenges all of us to address this important issue head on and ask what choices we want for ourselves at the end of life,” said Dignity in Dying chief executive Sarah Wootton.

Church of England bishops are among those voicing concern over the BBC’s decision to broadcast the documentary.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali raised concern over the possibility that it could inspire ‘copy cat’ suicides.

“What evidence is there that in screening the film these serious issues were taken into consideration? Apart from legal considerations around free speech, was there any thought given, or advice sought, about the moral implications of crossing this Rubicon?”

He continued, “As a public service broadcaster the BBC has an obligation to provide a balanced presentation of the moral issues of the day, especially when legality is also at stake.

“So far, there has been very little evidence of such balance in this matter.”

The Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Rev Michael Langrish, said he wanted to see much more emphasis on supporting the living, rather than assisting the dying.

“The law still enshrines that sense of intrinsic value of life. But the law ultimately is not there to constrain individual choice. It’s there to constrain third party action and complicity in another person’s death,” he said.

Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said the decision to screen Smedley’s death was evidence of “further bias” in support of euthanasia at the BBC.

He said the documentary breached the BBC’s own guidelines on the portrayal of suicide and could encourage the sick, elderly or disabled to commit suicide.

“This is yet another blatant example of the BBC playing the role of cheerleader in the vigorous campaign being staged by the pro-euthanasia lobby to legalise assisted suicide in Britain,” he said.

Campaign group Safermedia described the documentary as “worrying”.