BBC defends assisted-death footage in Pratchett documentary

The BBC has defended its decision to film a man’s last moments at the Dignitas clinic in a documentary fronted by Terry Pratchett.

In a five-minute sequence in the BBC2 programme, the best-selling author witnesses Peter, a British man in his early 70s who has motor neurone disease, taking his own life at the Swiss clinic.

BBC commissioning editor for documentaries Charlotte Moore told the Radio Times that she did not believe the “carefully edited but unflinching” scene could have been left out.

When Peter decides he is ready, he is seen drinking a liquid to prepare his stomach for what is to come while sitting at the kitchen table.

Then, sitting on a sofa with his wife at his side gently rubbing his hand, he drinks a second liquid, after which he falls into a deep sleep and dies.

Ms Moore said: “It is an extremely powerful and challenging scene – raw yet moving – but above all it is honest.

“Some people may question why we included this scene in the final cut. But in my view I don’t see how we could omit it.”

The documentary was commissioned to follow Pratchett on a journey to explore the realities of assisted death.

She said: “The greatest attachment he (Pratchett) formed was to Peter, and I felt it would be wrong to excise the time they spent together in Switzerland and the very process Peter went through to end his life.

“To gloss over Peter’s final moments would be to do a disservice to Peter, to Terry and to the viewer.

“We have a responsibility to tell the story in its entirety. How can we do this if we shy away from the crux of the story, difficult as this may be?”

The documentary is not the first time that someone has allowed their death to be filmed for TV – Sky previously showed the death of another motor neurone sufferer, Craig Ewert, at Dignitas.

Pratchett, who was diagnosed with a form of Alzheimer’s disease in 2008 and who describes himself as “a firm believer in assisted death”, told the Radio Times that he did not want to die at the clinic.

He said: “I have no particular interest in ending my life in Switzerland... Actually, I don’t want to die at all, to tell you the truth.”

Pratchett, whose Discworld series of books have sold millions of copies worldwide, favours the method legalised in the US state of Oregon, where “if the doctors agree that you are, as it were, a candidate, they give you the magic potion and you can take it away and keep it at home.

“Preferably, I suppose, not in a bottle marked lemonade. That is possibly close to the ideal,” he said.

The author said: “I do not wish to have to prescribe to Britain what it wants. I would like to see in the UK an examination of the methods of assisted dying so that we may consider what is best. You know, what suits the British.”

Getting to Switzerland means people with degenerative diseases who wish to die have to do so earlier than they feel necessary, to avoid it getting too late to travel.

Pratchett said: “That’s what makes me so angry, because I am absolutely sure that if Peter had not had to go to Dignitas, he would probably still be around now. If there was somewhere in England he could have gone to, when it did become too much for him.”

Witnessing the end of Peter’s life brought the writer to tears.

Pratchett said that Peter turned around and said “I’d like to thank you all” before drinking the liquid that would kill him.

The writer said: “Here’s the bit that blows your mind – he can’t remember the name of the sound man.

“And that’s what puts your mind in a spin. Here is a courteous man thanking the people who have come with him to be there and he’s now embarrassed, at the point of death, because he can’t remember the sound man’s name. This is so English.”

He said of witnessing the final moment: “The word ’tough’ can’t cover it.”

'Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die', is broadcast on Monday June 13 on BBC2 at 9pm.