Thoughts?
Entry posted by Stu_thailand ·
333 views
This is a story in one of todays newspapers from the UK. I know a forum was posted on this topic yesterday, but it's easier to post the photo's here.Thoughts? These shocking photographs show the moment tragic Craig Ewert draws his last breath after he opted for assisted suicide rather than spend the rest of his 'short' life locked in a 'living tomb.'
Retired university professor Craig, 59, who suffered from motor neurone disease (MND), was filmed as he passed away comforted by his wife at a controversial Swiss euthanasia clinic.
The assisted suicide - organised by Swiss group Dignitas will become the first ever to be shown on British television tomorrow night.
But the decision to allow the documentary to be broadcast was yesterday slammed by TV watchdogs, anti-euthanasia and pro-life campaigners alike.
Father-of-two Craig took the decision to end his life after motor neurone disease began to paralyse his ailing body and he was faced a drawn-out, agonising death.
The moving documentary shows Craig and Mary, his wife of 37 years, talking lucidly about the reasons behind his decision.But the footage becomes more harrowing as Mary pledges her love and kisses Craig moments before he downs a mixture of sedatives and turns off his life-support ventilator with a mouth-operated switch.
Just minutes before his death, Mary - who is remarkably collected considering the circumstances - said: 'Can I give you a big kiss?
'I love you sweetheart so much. Have a safe journey and see you some time.'
The documentary follows Craig and Mary, of Harrogate, Yorkshire, as they prepare for his ultimate release from the disease that has wracked and 'tortured' his body.
Craig describes his body as a 'living tomb' and said he welcomes euthanasia as an alternative to 'utter hell.'
He 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.
'You can watch only so much of yourself drain away before you look at what is left and say 'This is an empty shell'.
'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.'
But John Beyer, director of campaigning TV watchdog group Mediawatch-UK, today criticised the decision to broadcast Craig's death.
He said: 'This subject is something that is quite an important political issue at the moment and my anxieties are that the programme will influence public opinion.
'Documentary makers produce all manner of programmes and no one can stop that or intervene unless they fail to comply with the requirements of the communication act.
'If this programme is not impartial and promotes euthanasia then it would be in breach of the act - in short it must not influence members of the public or a change in the law.
'Broadcasters must always remain impartial otherwise they could influence the public or other sufferers into making a similar action - that's my anxiety.'
The Ewert's, who have two children Katrina, 33, and Ivan, 35, moved to Yorkshire from their native America when Craig took early retirement.
But in April 2006 Craig was diagnosed with MND, the same condition that affects Professor Stephen Hawking, and told he between two and five years to live.
However, the disease progressed faster than expected and Craig was left without the use of his legs, wheel-chair bound and dependent on full-time care from his wife.
Craig even needed a ventilator to help him breathe.
But when the chronic wasting disease threatened to rob Craig of his ability to swallow he decided to take his own life.
Craig paid controversial Swiss euthanasia group Dignitas £3,000 to cover the assisted suicide, his cremation and to ship his ashes back to the UK.
He passed away in an apartment in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 26, 2006, with wife Mary at his side - just five months after he was diagnosed with MND.
Craig died 45 minutes after he bit down on a timer to switch off his ventilator and then drank a lethal dose of barbiturate sodium phenobarbital through a straw.
Speaking just three days before his death, Craig explained he chose euthanasia in order to avoid unnecessary 'suffering' to himself and his loving family.
He said: 'By this point I have two choices, either actually go through with it or say, "You know what I am too scared right now and I do not want to do it".
'If I do not go through with it then my choice is to suffer and to enforce suffering on my family and then die in a way that is considerably more stressful and painful.
'I have death or I have suffering and death. This way makes a whole lot of sense to me.
'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 fact that I now know the date I am supposed to die simply makes definite what was previously indefinite and unknown.
'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'.
'In terms of having my children there at the end I figured that maybe they have the same feeling that it would be easier for them and for me if they were not here.
'If they were here then I would be talking to them and I anticipate that it would be more difficult for me to go through with it.'
Craig's children Katrina and Ivan visited him in England following his diagnosis but he forbade them from being present with him in Zurich.
Speaking after her father's death Katrina said: 'I really did not want to have to make the decision of whether I was going to be there or not.
'Part of me would have liked to have been there and part of me thought it was going to be really hard. My dad was a great guy and I love him very much. I will miss him.
'All through life he was a great example to me and even in his death he was just so true to himself.'
Ivan added: 'He understood and he knew how fiercely I loved him and still do and how proud I am of him and how proud I was to be a member of his family.'
Mary has moved back to live in America following Craig's death.
The documentary, which has never been screened before in the UK, was made by Oscar-winning Canadian director John Zaritsky.
He was granted unprecedented access to right-to-die organisation Dignitas, which has helped more than 700 people from 25 countries to die since 1999.
Switzerland is the only country in the world where assisted suicide is legal forRight to Die will be shown on Sky Real Lives tomorrow night at 9pm.
non-residents and under law the individual has to drink the fatal dose themselves.
Daniel James, 23, died at a Dignitas clinic on September 12, more than a year after a rugby accident which left him paralysed from the chest down.The CPS considered bringing charges under the Suicide Act against his parents Mark and Julie James, from Sinton Green, Worcester.Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC said today that such a prosecution would not be in the public interest, and no further action will be taken against the couple.
0 Comments
Recommended Comments