would you watch a suicide

[strollingbones]

THESE shocking pictures reveal the moment a man kills himself at a suicide clinic in Switzerland.
The chilling scenes show Craig Ewert, 59, who had motor neurone disease, setting a timer to switch off his ventilator before drinking lethal sedatives.

And it will all be broadcast on British TV tomorrow night.


Controversial

Mr Ewert's assisted suicide at the Swiss Dignitas clinic, was filmed for a documentary called Right To Die - The Suicide Tourist, to be shown on Sky Real Lives channel on Wednesday night.



Happy ... Ewert and wife before disease
It will be the first time an assisted suicide has been shown on British TV and will be sure to spark debate over the legality of the sensitive subject - as well as the controversial decision to screen it.

The retired university professor and dad-of-two decided to end his life as his illness was crippling his body.

Mr Ewert said: '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.

'If I opt for life then that is choosing to be tortured rather than end this journey and start the next one. I cannot take the risk.

'Let's face it, when you're completely paralysed and cannot talk how do you let somebody know you are suffering? This could be a complete and utter hell.

'You can watch only so much of yourself drain away before you look at what is left and say "This is an empty shell."

'Once I become completely paralysed then I am nothing more than a living tomb that takes in nutrients through a tube in the stomach - it's painful.'


‘ Let's face it, when you're completely paralysed and cannot talk how do you let somebody know you are suffering? ’
Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and Mr Ewert passed away peacefully holding his wife, Mary's hand.

But TV watchdogs have slammed the decision to broadcast the scenes.

John Beyer director of Mediawatch UK said:'This subject is something that is quite an important political issue at the moment and my anxieties are that the programme will influence public opinion.

'If this programme 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.'

Mr Ewert paid the Dignitas clinic £3,000 for the suicide, cremation and to ship his ashes back to the UK.

The people involved in making the film, including Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky, were all affected by the traumatic job.

Co-producer Terence McKeown said: 'It was an incredibly difficult experience for all of us. I think we’ve all suffered a bit of post-traumatic stress from it.

'It was profound and stayed with all of us, more so because we spent the previous few days with Craig, travelled with him to Zurich and got to know him quite well.

'He should have been able to do it at his home. He argued that it is quite inhumane to force people in various states of illness to go to a little apartment in a foreign city to die.'

Man's death to be shown on TV | The Sun |News

your thoughts, would you watch?

 

[Againsheila]

In this case, no.

If he were someone I loved and he wanted me to be there, yes.

 

[Gunny]

THESE shocking pictures reveal the moment a man kills himself at a suicide clinic in Switzerland.
The chilling scenes show Craig Ewert, 59, who had motor neurone disease, setting a timer to switch off his ventilator before drinking lethal sedatives.

And it will all be broadcast on British TV tomorrow night.


Controversial

Mr Ewert's assisted suicide at the Swiss Dignitas clinic, was filmed for a documentary called Right To Die - The Suicide Tourist, to be shown on Sky Real Lives channel on Wednesday night.



Happy ... Ewert and wife before disease
It will be the first time an assisted suicide has been shown on British TV and will be sure to spark debate over the legality of the sensitive subject - as well as the controversial decision to screen it.

The retired university professor and dad-of-two decided to end his life as his illness was crippling his body.

Mr Ewert said: '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.

'If I opt for life then that is choosing to be tortured rather than end this journey and start the next one. I cannot take the risk.

'Let's face it, when you're completely paralysed and cannot talk how do you let somebody know you are suffering? This could be a complete and utter hell.

'You can watch only so much of yourself drain away before you look at what is left and say "This is an empty shell."

'Once I become completely paralysed then I am nothing more than a living tomb that takes in nutrients through a tube in the stomach - it's painful.'


‘ Let's face it, when you're completely paralysed and cannot talk how do you let somebody know you are suffering? ’
Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland and Mr Ewert passed away peacefully holding his wife, Mary's hand.

But TV watchdogs have slammed the decision to broadcast the scenes.

John Beyer director of Mediawatch UK said:'This subject is something that is quite an important political issue at the moment and my anxieties are that the programme will influence public opinion.

'If this programme 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.'

Mr Ewert paid the Dignitas clinic £3,000 for the suicide, cremation and to ship his ashes back to the UK.

The people involved in making the film, including Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky, were all affected by the traumatic job.

Co-producer Terence McKeown said: 'It was an incredibly difficult experience for all of us. I think we’ve all suffered a bit of post-traumatic stress from it.

'It was profound and stayed with all of us, more so because we spent the previous few days with Craig, travelled with him to Zurich and got to know him quite well.

'He should have been able to do it at his home. He argued that it is quite inhumane to force people in various states of illness to go to a little apartment in a foreign city to die.'

Man's death to be shown on TV | The Sun |News

your thoughts, would you watch?

I think it's wrong for the media to put it on TV to begin with. How long before the suicidal or faux suicidal folk decide this is a way to get attention? Certainly not going to cut down on attempts.

 

[tigerbob]

your thoughts, would you watch?

Assuming it has been pre-viewed by MediaWatch and found to be factual and not taking a political position, then I think it should be shown, ideally after about 10pm.

I don't think I could bring myself to watch it though.

 

[Gem]

I support this man's right to choose when he will end his life. I do not support it being shown on television.

 

[Makedde]

I hope all the people agains euthanasia watch it. I hope they listen to this man describe his life and hopefully they will find some ounce of compassion and understand why people would want to end their lives, instead of expecting us all to suffer until our natural death.

 

[roomy]

Yes it was shown on tv here last night.While I support the right to die for certain individuals I couldn't bring myself to watch the man die in the name of entertainment.There is an ever growing lobby pushing for the right to assist in the suicides of those loved ones who wish it without fear of prosecution.It is a contentious and emotional issue which in my opinion warrants debate at the highest government level.I hope I never find myself in such a position.

 

[midcan5]

Beckett said it best, the thing he didn't like about death was he wouldn't be able to enjoy it. But watching death, like watching birth is a natural thing, both messy and more of a concern to loved ones. Legally I see no reason a person could not choose to die, cognizant of their final moment. And slippery slope nonsense is out of place in death unless you're some sort of fanatic.

 

[AllieBaba]

I hope all the people agains euthanasia watch it. I hope they listen to this man describe his life and hopefully they will find some ounce of compassion and understand why people would want to end their lives, instead of expecting us all to suffer until our natural death.

If people want to end their lives they can do it the old fashioned way...with a gun, hanging, or an overdose. Overdose on acetaminofen wait 72 hours...nobody can reverse or stop your death. It might take a couple of weeks, but you will die, I promise.

But inviting doctors in to help with the decision is a HUMONGOUS mistake.

 

[Steerpike]

No.

 

[Silence]

I support this man's right to choose when he will end his life. I do not support it being shown on television.

I'm starting to worry Gem...I'm agreeing with you more and more these days...

 

[AllieBaba]

Beckett said it best, the thing he didn't like about death was he wouldn't be able to enjoy it. But watching death, like watching birth is a natural thing, both messy and more of a concern to loved ones. Legally I see no reason a person could not choose to die, cognizant of their final moment. And slippery slope nonsense is out of place in death unless you're some sort of fanatic.

You are some kind of fanatic.
Netherlands. They went from abortion, to post-birth abortion, to euthanasia...to NON-CONSENSUAL EUTHANASIA.

So let's talk slippery slope, dumb ass. If you can't speak up for yourself, they're putting you down in that country.

 

[Silence]

it is kind of ridiculous that suicide is a crime..how do they prosecute someone who commits this crime?

 

[AllieBaba]

Says the UN:
"Our greatest concern is not the practise of euthanasia as such". According to EU monitor Eckart Klein, the danger of the Dutch law is that it will become easier and easier to commit euthanasia. 'The doctors performing the euthanasia will become desensitised, and will see it as a normal task." The UN Human Rights Committee keeps on mentioning good supervision. Above all, the committee has a problem with the fact that children as young as 16 - even though they are not yet adults - can make a request for euthanasia.
UN Criticises Dutch Euthanasia Law - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - English


Children between 12 and 16 must normally have their parents' consent before they may request euthanasia. However, in 'exceptional' cases — those involving serious and incurable disease or intolerable and unrelenting suffering — a doctor may agree to such a child's request even without parental request. Requests by children aged 16 -17 do not require parental consent, though parents should be involved in decision making.
Current euthanasia law in the Netherlands

the "Nazi" analogy is worth exploring, precisely because it is unequivocally true that
German doctors did kill thousands of disabled babies, for which a few such physicians were hanged at Nuremberg. Dutch apologists know this, of course. But they claim that the Netherlands' infant euthanasia program is substantially different: Dutch doctors are motivated by compassion whereas the Germans' were motivated by the bigotry of racial hygiene. Of course it is the act of killing disabled and dying babies that is wrong, not the motivation. But even leaving that aside, the Dutch defense is not as persuasive as Prime Minister Balkenende would like to believe.

THE SEEDS OF GERMAN EUTHANASIA were planted in 1920 in the book Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life (Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Leben). Its authors were two of the most respected academics in their respective fields: Karl Binding was a renowned law professor, and Alfred Hoche a physician and humanitarian.

The authors accepted wholeheartedly that people with terminal illnesses, the mentally ill or retarded, and deformed people could be euthanized as "life unworthy of life." More than that, the authors professionalized and medicalized the concept and, according to Robert Jay Lifton in The Nazi Doctors, promoted euthanasia in these circumstances as "purely a healing treatment" and a "healing work"--justified as a splendid way to relieve suffering while saving money spent on caring for the disabled.

Over the years Binding and Hoche's attitudes percolated throughout German society and became accepted widely. These attitudes were stoked enthusiastically by the Nazis so that by 1938 the German government received an outpouring of requests from the relatives of severely disabled infants and young children seeking permission to end their lives.

Killing Babies, Compassionately

 

[AllieBaba]

In the Netherlands, Groningen University Hospital has decided its doctors will euthanize children under the age of 12, if doctors believe their suffering is intolerable or if they have an incurable illness. But what does that mean? In many cases, as occurs now with adults, it will become an excuse not to provide proper pain control for children who are dying of potentially agonizing maladies such as cancer, and doing away with them instead. As for those deemed "incurable"--this term is merely a euphemism for killing babies and children who are seriously disabled.

For anyone paying attention to the continuing collapse of medical ethics in the Netherlands, this isn't at all shocking. Dutch doctors have been surreptitiously engaging in eugenic euthanasia of disabled babies for years,
although it technically is illegal, since infants can't consent to be killed. Indeed, a disturbing 1997 study published in the British medical journal, the Lancet, revealed how deeply pediatric euthanasia has already metastasized into Dutch neo natal medical practice: According to the report, doctors were killing approximately 8 percent of all infants who died each year in the Netherlands. That amounts to approximately 80-90 per year. Of these, one-third would have lived more than a month. At least 10-15 of these killings involved infants who did not require life-sustaining treatment to stay alive. The study found that a shocking 45 percent of neo-natologists and 31 percent of pediatricians who responded to questionnaires had killed infants
Now They Want to Euthanize Children

Brussels, Belgium (LifeNews.com) -- Following a proposal in neighboring Netherlands, Belgian lawmakers are putting forward a measure that would expand the country's legal euthanasia law to allow doctors to end the lives of children without parental permission.
Belgium Lawmakers: Expand Euthanasia Law to Include Children

Of the 200,000 children born in the Netherlands every year, about 1000 die during the first year of life. For approximately 600 of these infants, death is preceded by a medical decision regarding the end of life.

...Finally, there are infants with a hopeless prognosis who experience what parents and medical experts deem to be unbearable suffering. Although it is difficult to define in the abstract, this group includes patients who are not dependent on intensive medical treatment but for whom a very poor quality of life, associated with sustained suffering, is predicted. For example, a child with the most serious form of spina bifida will have an extremely poor quality of life, even after many operations.
NEJM -- The Groningen Protocol -- Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns


So there you have it. It goes from euthanasia for those who desire it, then it goes to euthanasia for children who ask for it, regardless of what their parents say, then it goes to just willy-nilly killing off babies who somebody decides won't be happy or comfortable in their lives.

 

[AllieBaba]

it is kind of ridiculous that suicide is a crime..how do they prosecute someone who commits this crime?

I guess they could prosecute those who botch it....

"Damn you, you're going to jail for making us go through all this!"

I think it's more of a way of being able to force them into treatment than actually seeking punishment for those who try to off themselves. If you try to commit suicide and fail, the law steps in and takes custody of you and determines where you'll go, and I suspect that's the main reason it's considered a "crime". It's the quickest way to protect suicidal people.

 

[AllieBaba]

And the clincher:
Herbert Hendin, MD, Executive Director of the American Suicide Foundation and Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College has written the following in his authoritative analysis of euthanasia in the Netherlands: Seduced By Death - Doctors, Patients and the Dutch Cure:

"The doctors who help set Dutch euthanasia policies are aware that euthanasia is basically out of control in the Netherlands. They admitted this to me privately. Yet in their public statements and articles they maintain there are no serious problems...." p. 14

"The experience of the Dutch people makes it clear that legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia is not the answer to the problems of people who are terminally ill. The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia for people who are terminally ill to euthanasia for those who are chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illneses to euthanasai for psychological distress, and from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia (called "termination of the patient without explicit request"). The Dutch government's own commissioned research has documented that in more than one thousand cases a year, doctors actively cause or hasten death without the patient's request."
Expert opinion on problems with euthanasia - Hospice Patients Alliance
So let's hear about the paucity of slippery slope when it comes to euthanasia again. I like it when people talk out their asses.

"" The alarming statistics in the Remmelink Report indicate that in thousands of cases, decisions that might or were intended to end a fully competent patient's life were made without consulting the patient."
from the same link

 

[Makedde]

And the clincher:
Herbert Hendin, MD, Executive Director of the American Suicide Foundation and Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College has written the following in his authoritative analysis of euthanasia in the Netherlands: Seduced By Death - Doctors, Patients and the Dutch Cure:

"The doctors who help set Dutch euthanasia policies are aware that euthanasia is basically out of control in the Netherlands. They admitted this to me privately. Yet in their public statements and articles they maintain there are no serious problems...." p. 14

"The experience of the Dutch people makes it clear that legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia is not the answer to the problems of people who are terminally ill. The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia for people who are terminally ill to euthanasia for those who are chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illneses to euthanasai for psychological distress, and from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia (called "termination of the patient without explicit request"). The Dutch government's own commissioned research has documented that in more than one thousand cases a year, doctors actively cause or hasten death without the patient's request."
Expert opinion on problems with euthanasia - Hospice Patients Alliance
So let's hear about the paucity of slippery slope when it comes to euthanasia again. I like it when people talk out their asses.

"" The alarming statistics in the Remmelink Report indicate that in thousands of cases, decisions that might or were intended to end a fully competent patient's life were made without consulting the patient."
from the same link

*sigh* Have any families of the deceased complained that their doctor hastened the death of their loved one? How many lawsuits have been filed since euthanasia was made legal?

Not many, I would bet.

 

[Makedde]

You are some kind of fanatic.
Netherlands. They went from abortion, to post-birth abortion, to euthanasia...to NON-CONSENSUAL EUTHANASIA.

Non consentual euthanasia is acceptable to me depending on the situation.

For instance, if someone is in a permanent vegetative state with no chance of recovery, then I say pull the plug on them. No point wasting precious resources to keep someone alive by a machine or feeding tube.

If people want to end their lives they can do it the old fashioned way...with a gun, hanging, or an overdose. Overdose on acetaminofen wait 72 hours...nobody can reverse or stop your death. It might take a couple of weeks, but you will die, I promise.

But inviting doctors in to help with the decision is a HUMONGOUS mistake.

Sure, blow your brains out. It's all the more horrible for whoever discovers you. Then there'll be an autopsy. You might miss and end up with brain damage - assuming you didn't have brain damage to begin with.
Take pills, why not? Just make sure you take enough to actually kill yourself because you don't want to wake up in hospital and find the attempt has failed.
Hang yourself, sounds all well and good. Face turns purple, eyes bulge out of your head, tongue protrudes and turns black. Skin mottled, blood gathers at the lower point of the body, in this case, the legs and ankles, making them swell. Cut them down, body bag, autopsy. Sure, sounds great, doesn't it?

Or, you can have a medical professional with you to administer the drugs, so you can die peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.

I know which I would prefer.

 

[sky dancer]

I met one of Dr Kevorkian's first 'patients'.