Leading British Christians are among those criticising the British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC) decision to allow a broadcast of a dying man, only moments after he had committed assisted suicide.
The Choosing to Die documentary followed author Sir Terry Pratchett’s to Switzerland where he watched 71-year-old Peter Smedley, a British man with motor neurone disease, being assisted to die at the Digitas clinic.
Pratchett, who has Alzheimer’s disease, informed BBC Newsnight that he hoped the documentary would 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 said in an interview.
The Anglican Bishop Nazir-Ali was one of those who criticised the documentary saying it might spark ‘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?”
The Bishop added, “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, was another well-known clergyman who spoke out saying he would prefer to see 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 argued.
However, the programme was also defended by many, with one campaign group Dignity in Dying, saying 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,” insisted Dignity in Dying chief executive Sarah Wootton.
(Image from anglican-mainstream.net).