Suicide film to be shown on TV

Footage of a man ending his own life will be broadcast on TV later.

Suicide film to be shown on TV The film shows Craig Ewert drinking a mixture of sedatives at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and turning off his own ventilator using his teeth.

The 59-year-old American suffered from motor neurone disease and chose to die rather than endure what he described as 'torture'.

The footage forms part of a documentary filmed by Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky called Right to Die?

The broadcast comes a day after the parents of paralysed rugby player Daniel James were told they would face no action over his assisted suicide at Dignitas at the age of 23.

The film, which is on Sky Real Lives at 9pm, shows Mr Ewert bleakly outlining his options as "death, or suffering and death".

Before his suicide, Mr Ewert said: "I'd like to continue. The thing is that I really can't.

"I can't take that risk, that's choosing to be tortured rather than end this journey and start the next one.

"If I go through with it, I die as I must at some point.

"If I don't go through with it, my choice is to suffer, for my family to suffer and then die.

"The fact that I know the date I'm going to die simply makes definite what was previously indefinite.

"When you are completely paralysed, can't talk, can't walk, can't move your eyes, how do you let someone know that you are suffering?"

In a moving letter to his two adult children, who appear in the programme, he wrote: "This is a journey I must make.

"At the same time I hope this is not the cause of major distress to my dear sweet wife, who will have the greatest loss, as we have been together for 37 years in the greatest intimacy."

Sky defended the decision to broadcast Mr Ewert's suicide.

Barbara Gibbon, Head of Sky Real Lives, said: "This is an issue that more and more people are confronting and this documentary is an informative, articulate and educated insight into the decisions some people have to make.

"I think it's important that TV broadcasters, and particularly Sky Real Lives, can stimulate debate about this issue through powerful, individual and engaging stories and give this subject a wider airing."