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2008-12-11 12:36:56
By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer Gregory Katz, Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 11, 2:08 am ET
LONDON The scene is difficult to watch, even for viewers inured to the
subject of dying by a steady diet of violent Hollywood and television fare.
Craig Ewert, a former computer scientist from Chicago, is shown lying in bed
with his wife at his side while he takes barbiturates. He asks for a glass of
apple juice to mask the bad taste and help him swallow. Then he uses his teeth
to turn off his ventilator and dies on camera.
Britain's obsession with reality television reached new heights or depths
Wednesday night with the broadcast of the assisted suicide of the 59-year-old
terminally ill American at a Swiss clinic.
Showing the final moment of death had long been a final taboo, even for
no-holds-barred British TV, where sex and violence are common, and the
broadcast unleashed debate on an issue that strongly divides public opinion.
Photographs of Ewert's final moments dominated Britain's newspaper front pages
Wednesday "SUICIDE TV" screamed one tabloid and prompted a debate in
Parliament, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown was quizzed about the propriety
of the decision to air the program.
Before he died, Ewert said taking his own life would mean less suffering for
himself and his family.
"If I go through with it, I die as I must at some point," he says in the
documentary, which chronicles his 2006 decision to take his own life after
being diagnosed with degenerative motor neuron disease.
"If I don't go through with it, my choice is essentially to suffer, and to
inflict suffering on my family, and then die."
Care Not Killing, an anti-euthanasia group aligned with the Catholic Church and
other religious organizations in Britain, denounced the broadcast as "a cynical
attempt to boost television ratings" and persuade Parliament to legalize
assisted suicide.
"There is a growing appetite from the British public for increasingly bizarre
reality shows," said the group's director, Peter Saunders. "We'd see it as a
new milestone. It glorifies assisted dying when there is a very active campaign
by the pro-suicide lobby to get the issue back into Parliament."
Mary Ewert wrote in the British press Wednesday that her husband had been
enthusiastic about having his final moments televised.
"He was keen to have it shown because when death is hidden and private, people
don't face their fears about it," she said, adding that he wanted viewers to
understand that assisted suicide allowed him to die comfortably rather than
enduring a long, drawn out and painful demise.
The documentary by Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky has previously been
shown on Canadian and Swiss TV and at numerous film festivals, where it
provoked little controversy. But it struck a raw nerve in Britain, where the
divisive debate over assisted suicide remains unresolved.
Zaritsky said it would have been "less than honest" to make the film without
showing the actual suicide because it would have left viewers wondering if the
death was unpleasant, cruel, or carried out against Ewert's will.
"By putting it out there, and putting it out there in its entirety, people can
judge for themselves," he said, adding that the documentary gives viewers an
insight into how assisted suicide would work if it is legalized in more places.
Originally called "The Suicide Tourist," the film was renamed "Right to Die?"
for its British broadcast on Sky TV's Real Lives digital channel, which draws
far fewer viewers than the network's myriad news, sports or movie shows. Still,
it generated enormous publicity, with clips shown throughout the day on Sky
News and rival channels.
The televised suicide in Britain follows a well-publicized case in Florida,
where a teenager killed himself on camera last month and broadcast the chilling
images live on an Internet site.
Ewert, who was living in Britain when he became ill, went abroad to end his
life because assisted suicide is illegal in Britain.
In the film, he says he wanted to take action before the disease, which
destroys cells that control essential muscle activity such as speaking,
walking, breathing and swallowing, left him completely incapacitated.
The documentary shows Ewert and his wife going about their daily routine: Mary
cleans her husband's teeth, bathes, shaves and feeds him as he bows his head.
Speaking in a reedy voice and breathing deeply from plastic tubes attached to
his nose, Ewert said he felt like "empty shell."
He said some people might say: "No, suicide is wrong, God has forbidden it.
Fine, but you know what? This ventilator is God."
Before the pair leave for Switzerland, he is wheeled through a local park.
"I see the plants, and they're dying, and I'm dying too," he muses. "They'll be
coming back next spring I'm unlikely to."
"I think I can take my bow, and say: Thanks, it's been fun."
In an emotional message to his adult son and daughter, who appear in the
program, Ewert asked for understanding.
"I would hope that this is not a cause of major distress to those who love me,"
he said, using a voice-activated computer to speak. "This is a journey I must
make."
At the same time, he acknowledged, "My dear sweet wife will have the greatest
loss, as we have been together for 37 years in the greatest intimacy."
The program shows Ewert being interviewed by Dr. Hans-Jurg Schweizer in Zurich,
Switzerland. Schweizer, who is responsible for filling out the lethal
prescriptions, gives his approval and wishes him a "happy journey."
Later, Ewert is set up on a small yellow bed in a nondescript room; as the
technicians get ready, his wife says her goodbyes.
"Have a safe journey," she says, tearing up. "See you sometime."
Ewert chokes down the lethal cocktail, slurping apple juice through a pink
straw to blot out the taste as the ninth movement of Beethoven's symphony plays
in the background. His wife holds his hand as he begins dying.
Dignitas, a well-known assisted suicide group in Switzerland, where suicide is
legal in some circumstances, aided Ewert.
The group's founder Ludwig A. Minelli said the presence of cameras and
filmmakers did not in any way influence Ewert's decision.
"Ewert, because of his illness and his declared intent right from the start to
shorten his own suffering, never once considered the possibility of abandoning
his assisted suicide," said Minelli.
The case came up during the prime minister's question time Wednesday when
legislator Phil Willis, who represents Ewert's district, complained that the
film promoted a crime.
He asked Brown if the prime minister believed the show was "in the public
interest" or simply a case of "distasteful voyeurism."
Brown did not venture an opinion, saying only that the government's "television
watchdogs" will scrutinize the show after it is broadcast.
Public opinion polls suggest that 80 percent of Britons believe the law should
be changed to allow a doctor to end a patient's life in a case like Ewert's,
but opposition from influential religious groups remains strong and the
anti-suicide law remains in place.