Media Says Assisted Killing Peaceful: I See A Macabre Circus

Brit Terry Pratchett's "documentary" filming an assisted killing is getting advance spin from the media about how heroic, etc. it is. That’s what this piece is about. But read carefully the part about the actual assisted killing - I see a macabre circus where the duty to die lurks just beneath the surface.

I saw a stranger die. It's a Rubicon moment, not necessarily in a bad way

Terry Pratchett's controversial new documentary, Choosing to Die, ends in a man's death. Peter Smedley had motor neurone disease and chose to go to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland before he lost the ability to "self-determine" (article 8 of the Human Rights Act upholds for us all the right to self-determination).

In the film, which airs on BBC2 on Monday evening, Smedley ends his life at 71 with a glass of lethal medicine, his wife on one side, a Dignitas helper on the other, Pratchett standing aside, Pratchett's assistant at the door. more