A follow up to the previous post. Craig's wife, Mary, speaks to his death and it being televised and their reasons.

Mr. Ewert's wife Mary speaks: "Why I want my husband's death in a suicide clinic shown on TV... he wanted to get people thinking and talking about it."

Just minutes before his death, Mary, his wife of 37 years asks him: "Can I give you a big kiss?" She adds: "I love you sweetheart so much. Have a safe journey and see you some time."

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Mary, 59, explained why she wanted the world to share his dying moment, she said: "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. The only time I asked the film crew to leave was around 30 minutes after Craig had died. I needed to cry and I wanted to do that alone. If this film gets people thinking about death and talking about it, that's all that Craig would have wished."

...The programme was condemned last night as dangerous and grotesque amid fears that it would 'undermine people's right to life' and risked glorifying suicide....

...Mr Ewert decided to use the services of Dignitas to end his life and paid it £3,000. Helped by Dignitas 'escort' Arthur Bernhard, Mr Ewert is shown using his teeth to activate a timer which switches off his lifesupport machine in 45 minutes. The patient is then warned: "Mr Ewert if you drink this you're going to die."

As Beethoven's Ninth plays in the background, he drinks the lethal dose of barbiturate sodium phenobarbital from a cup using a straw. Mr Ewert's wife Mary held her husband's hand as he passed away less than 45 minutes after drinking a lethal dose of sedatives and setting a timer to switch off his ventilator. The Dignitas representative, who holds the cup for him, says: "I wish you good travelling" and he loses consciousness minutes later as his wife holds his hand. Later there is a loud beep as the breathing aid machine turns itself off. The Dignitas man checks his pulse in his neck and says: 'He's gone."

Mrs Ewert is then seen kissing his body. Explaining the situation he found himself in, Mr Ewert said: "I am tired of the disease but I am not tired of living. I still enjoy life enough that I would like to continue, but the thing is that I really cannot. If I opt for life then that is choosing to be tortured rather than end this journey and start the next one. I cannot take the risk. Let's face it, when you're completely paralysed and cannot talk how do you let somebody know you are suffering? This could be a complete and utter hell." He added: "Once I become completely paralysed then I am nothing more than a living tomb that takes in nutrients through a tube in the stomach - it's painful."

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. We may not think it's a good reason but it is that person's life. I have had a pretty good run. I think I can take my bow and say, 'Thanks, it has been fun, I would do it again'."

...Dominica Roberts of the Pro-Life Alliance said. "It is both sad and dangerous to show this kind of thing on the television. It is sad because any suicide is sad. It is dangerous because it could have a copycat effect. The point of the laws are to protect vulnerable people."...

Dr Trevor Stammers, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said the spectacle of having your death broadcast on TV was grotesque.

online article

After reading more here I've become a little annoyed at the opponent's reasons. "Grotesque...dangerous...copycat effect...protect vulnerable people...undermine people's right to life...risk glorifying suicide...

What about all the gratuitous violence, killing, mayhem, etc. that is gushed out any and every given day by the entertainment industry? This video won't glorify killing...so I'm having to rethink the televising of it a little.

God Bless Mary, Craig's wife's heart.