BBC to show death of man in suicide clinic

The last moments of a terminally-ill man who travelled to an assisted suicide clinic to end his life will be shown in a documentary presented by best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett.

Viewers of the BBC2 show will see the writer, whose Discworld series of books have sold millions of copies worldwide, at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland with the 71-year-old motor neurone disease sufferer, named only as Peter.

Sir Terry, who was diagnosed with a form of Alzheimer’s disease in 2008, said he was “a firm believer in assisted death”.

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He said: “I believe everybody possessed of a debilitating and incurable disease should be allowed to pick the hour of their death. And I wanted to know more about Dignitas in case I ever wanted to go there myself.”

In the hour-long film, which will be broadcast in the summer, he compares how different European countries deal with the issue and meets people who want to control how and when they die.

It is not the first time assisted suicide has been shown on television. In 2008, a documentary on Sky Television called Right To Die? showed Craig Ewert, a retired university professor from Harrogate who also suffered from motor neurone disease, end his life.

The BBC’s commissioning editor for documentaries, Charlotte Moore, said: “Assisted death is an important topic of debate in the UK, and this is a chance to follow Sir Terry as he wrestles with the difficult issues that many across Britain are also faced with.”