Death by assisted suicide to be aired in UK

A British television channel said Wednesday it plans to show the suicide of an American man at a Swiss clinic, a broadcast criticized as an insensitive stunt by opponents of assisted suicide.

The death of 59-year-old Craig Ewert in 2006 was scheduled to be shown Wednesday evening in a documentary on the Sky Real Lives digital channel.

Ewert had degenerative motor neuron disease and died at a clinic in Zurich run by the assisted suicide group Dignitas, with his wife Mary at his side. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland in some circumstances and various organizations there provide suicide services.

via NYTimes.com

The parents of Daniel James, the paralyzed rugy player who committed assisted suicide, will not be charged, it was decided Tuesday. The 23 year old is reportedly the "youngest Briton" to use Dignitas.

See also Liz Carr's Dying for a disabled Role Model

The vast amount of publicity given to the pro-euthanasia lobby, however, would seem to suggest that it's the majority of us who want to book a one-way ticket to Switzerland. This unapologetic bias only serves to misrepresent millions of disabled peoples' lives.

In our society, the prevailing view of illness and disability is that they're a tragedy and thus the decision to die is often seen as entirely rational, inevitable and even brave. Rarely is this status quo challenged but instead the majority of press reports reinforce it. We are forever hearing about the campaign to assist people to die with dignity, for example, but what about the equally compelling campaign to assist people to live with dignity? Balanced media coverage of this issue is not just essential, it's a matter of life and death.

I couldn't agree more that the highly publicized cases serve to support assumptions and myths that living with a disability is a "half life", a "punishment" or a fate worse than death. Rubbish. There are so many of us living with disability who don't feel that way - and yet, as Liz writes, our stories are not heard and certainly not represented in the media. Nor is attention being paid to the very real needs of those who want to live with disability. And that is something I've blogged about often and will continue to.