Choking and pleading for water as he dies... this has been a happy event

Choking and pleading for water as he dies... this has been a happy event
Fury at suicide on BBC

A hint to seniors in a promo?


A DESPERATELY ill man will be shown on TV choking and begging for water before he dies in a suicide clinic.

The harrowing scenes to be screened by BBC2 on Monday are set to spark outrage.

Millionaire hotelier Peter Smedley, 71, was filmed swallowing a lethal dose of the barbiturate Nembutal - helped down with a praline chocolate.

He gasps for breath. Within a minute his face turns red and he chokes as he pleads for water.

The documentary Choosing To Die shows an "escort" at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland holding on to Peter as he convulses on a sofa.

His wife of 40 years, Christine, 60, holds his shaking hand.

The staff member tells the camera: "He is losing consciousness, very soon the breathing will stop and then the heart."

After motor neurone disease sufferer Peter dies the Dignitas worker tells Christine she can cry and "let it all out".

Author Sir Terry Pratchett, who made the programme, says to a background of haunting pipe music: "This has been a happy event.

"He died peacefully, more or less in the arms of his wife, quietly."

Sir Terry, an Alzheimer's sufferer and supporter of euthanasia, tells clinic staff he was "impressed".

The camera cuts to snow falling outside the corrugated iron Dignitas house on an industrial estate.

But campaigners Care Not Killing attacked the BBC for its "one-sided" programme.

Multiple sclerosis sufferer Geoff Morris, 58, said after seeing a preview: "Snowfall, music, all it needed was angels to carry him away to the pearly gates.

"It was biased and there was no argument against euthanasia."

Peter, of the Smedley canned foods family, is shown earlier at his £3million Guernsey mansion.

He tells Sir Terry: "My condition has deteriorated to the point where I need to go fairly shortly."

The programme also follows multiple sclerosis sufferer Andrew Colgan, 42, to Dignitas - which has helped 1,100 people to die in 12 years.

Andrew says: "Most mornings I get out of bed by falling then have to crawl from room to room. I don't want to live the life I have now."

His death is not shown. But when the time comes Sir Terry is seen drinking whisky and listening to Elgar's Nimrod.

BBC Knowledge controller Emma Swain said: "I am delighted that we have ended up commissioning such a really good film."

Asked about Peter's death, she said: "It would have been a disservice to not include it."