Brown calls for 'sensitivity' over assisted suicide

The Prime Minister said today he was personally opposed to assisted suicide ahead of the broadcast of a programme in which a terminally ill man is seen ending his life.

The death of Craig Ewert, 59, who suffered from motor neurone disease (MND), will be shown on Sky Television tonight during the programme Right To Die?.

Gordon Brown told the Commons it was important the issues were dealt with "sensitively and without sensationalism".

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, he said: "I believe that it is necessary to ensure that there is never a case in this country where a sick or elderly person feels under pressure to agree to an assisted death or somehow feels it is the expected thing to do.

"That is why I have always opposed legislation for assisted deaths.

"These are very difficult issues and we should all remember that at the heart of any single individual case are families and people in very difficult circumstances who have to make for themselves very difficult choices. None of us would want to go through that."

Earlier, Dr Peter Saunders, director of the campaign group Care Not Killing, accused programme makers of a "cynical attempt to boost television ratings".

He said: "It's a slippery slope. The danger is that we start to believe in a story that there is such a thing as a life not worth living.

"A change in the law would put pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives so as not to be a burden."

But Mr Ewert's wife, Mary, defended the programme, saying it was about "facing the end of life honestly".

She wrote in the Independent: "He was keen to have it shown because when death is hidden and private, people don't face their fears about it.

"They don't acknowledge that it is going to happen, they don't reflect on it, they don't want to face it. That's the taboo."

Mr Ewert, a former university professor who lived in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, travelled to Switzerland to commit suicide, assisted by the controversial organisation Dignitas.

At a Zurich clinic, with his wife Mary by his side, the American father of two drank a mixture of sedatives and turned off his own ventilator using his teeth.

He allowed his death in September 2006 to be filmed for a documentary by Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky.

Liberal Swiss laws have allowed Dignitas, founded in 1998, to offer assisted suicides legally and so far more than 600 people have died at its clinics.

Before his death, 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."

In his 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."

John Beyer of Mediawatch-UK said: "I'm not sure whether the moment of death is something for television but the real concern is whether this is influencing the public in a way that it shouldn't be."

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has received a handful of complaints already but does not take action on programmes until after thier transmission.

Mr Zaritsky told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "I think it would be less than honest if we were to do a film about the process of assisted suicide and not actually be able to see the ultimate, you know, act as it were.

"Otherwise we'd be left open to charges that the death was unpleasant, or cruel or wasn't even done willingly.

"And by putting it out there in its entirety, people can judge for themselves."

Sky defended the decision to broadcast the film.

Barbara Gibbon, head of Sky Real Lives, said: "Directed by an internationally respected filmmaker, Right To Die? is an honest and impartial documentary which explores its subject with respect and dignity.

"The story of Craig and Mary Ewert provides a moving insight into the real-life stories that lie behind the debate over the morality and legality of assisted suicide.

"As a broadcaster, we believe that there is a role for television to inform public debate about even the most challenging subjects."

It was announced yesterday that the parents of a former rugby player who committed suicide at a Dignitas-run clinic would not be prosecuted for helping him to die.

Daniel James, 23, killed himself on September 12, more than a year after a rugby accident which left him paralysed from the chest down.

* Right To Die? will be broadcast tonight on Sky Real Lives at 9pm.