By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is under fire from all sides after broadcasting the disturbing death of a man by euthanasia, not only because the death was far from “peaceful” but because it presented no opposing viewpoints on the subject of assisted suicide.
According to The Daily Mail, almost 900 viewers made formal complaints to the BBC about the program, with just 82 people saying they liked the show.
The broadcast showed the final moments in the life of a 71 year-old millionaire named Peter Smedley who died at a Dignitas clinic after swallowing a lethal dose of Nembutal. Smedley is seen gasping, choking, and begging for water before he dies with his wife, Christine, at his side.
The documentary was hosted by Sir Terry Pratchett, a novelist who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and who has been campaigning for the legalization of assisted suicide in Britain.
In addition to viewer complaints, the Mail reports that four senior “peers” accused the BBC of running an ‘orchestrated campaign’ to change the law on assisted suicide. They sent a letter to director-general Mark Thompson and BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten to complain about the show, calling it “repugnant” and “disgraceful.”
“Setting aside our repugnance that the death of a patient with motor neurone disease should be turned into a form of voyeuristic entertainment, the BBC has a duty to provide balanced debate,” the peers wrote. “It is not the job of the Corporation to become a lobbying organization or a cheerleader for those who wish to change the law.”
BBC spokeswoman, Charlotte Moore, defended the show. “The BBC doesn’t have a stance on assisted suicide, but we do think that this is an important matter of debate. Across all BBC output, we have looked at assisted death, hospice care and palliative care in a variety of different ways including documentaries and news debates.”
But this didn’t satisfy the many groups who raised complaints about the broadcast which are coming from members of various charities, politicians and religious groups who are accusing the documentary of being nothing more than “propaganda” for euthanasia.
The former Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, told the Mail: “I think an opportunity has been bypassed of having a balanced programme – the thousands of people who use the hospice movement and who have a good and peaceful death, there was very little about them. This was really propaganda on one side.”
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The BBC photo shows Smedley swallowing the lethal cocktail with his wife Christine (left) and a Dignitas worker.
