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Activists criticise televised suicide
This is the moment a wife said goodbye to her husband as he prepared to commit suicide in a euthanasia clinic.
- Evening Standard
- Published: 23:39 December 10, 2008
London: I love you sweetheart. Have a safe journey.
This is the moment a wife said goodbye to her husband as he prepared to commit suicide in a euthanasia clinic.
The death of motor neurone disease sufferer Craig Ewert yesterday became the first suicide televised in Britain. In harrowing scenes, Mary Ewert is shown speaking to her 59-year-old husband minutes before his death.
She said: "Can I give you a big kiss? I love you sweetheart so much. Have a safe journey and see you some time."
Lethal dose
The retired university professor from Yorkshire is seen drawing his last breath after taking a mixture of sedatives and turning his life-support ventilator off with a mouth-operated switch.
Ewert died 45 minutes after biting down on the timing switch and drinking a lethal dose of barbiturate sodium phenobarbital through a straw. Pro-life campaigners have reacted to the documentary, due to be aired on Sky Real Lives, with condemnation.
Ewert paid euthanasia group Dignitas £3,000 (Dh16,308) to arrange the assisted suicide in an apartment in Zurich on September 26, 2006.
Speaking three days before his death, he said: "There are people who will say: 'Suicide is wrong, God has forbidden it. You cannot play God and take your own life.' But if somebody wants to take their own life obviously they feel a reason for that at that point in time. We may not think it's a good reason but it is that person's life."
The father of children Katrina, 33, and Ivan, 35, who were not present at his death, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease five months before he took his life.
He was told he had between two and five years to live, but the disease progressed faster than expected. Ewert was wheel-chair bound, dependent on full-time care from his wife and on a ventilator.
When the disease threatened to rob him of his ability to swallow, he decided to end his life.
"You can watch only so much of yourself drain away before you look at what is left and say 'This is an empty shell'," he said.
Response: Wife's defence
The wife of a man whose suicide will be shown on television tonight has defended the move.
Mary Ewert, 59, was with her husband Craig during his assisted suicide in Switzerland. His last moments was scheduled to be broadcast last night in a prime-time Sky TV programme.
Mrs Ewert said: "I am not surprised one bit by the criticism - some of which is very vitriolic. People don't want to think about death or look at someone dying because it makes them think about their own death."
But she added: "The film is a wonderful tribute to my husband. I have absolutely no regrets about agreeing to leave the camera rolling as Craig died. It's what we both wanted."
Mr Ewert, 59, who suffered from motor neurone disease, paid Swiss euthanasia group Dignitas to arrange his death. In the documentary he is seen turning off his ventilator with his mouth and drinking a lethal dose of drugs through a straw.
Anti-euthanasia groups have condemned the broadcast. Dominica roberts of the Pro-Life alliance said: "It is both sad and dangerous to show this kind of thing on the television."
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