Documentary on real assisted suicide airs on British TV tonight

London, December 10 (ANI): A documentary showing a retired university professor being actually helped by a Swiss euthanasia group to end his own life will be telecast for the first time on British TV this night.

Craig Ewert decided commit suicide after a motor neurone disease rendered him unable to breathe unaided.

He had paid 3,000 pounds for an assisted suicide with the Swiss-based Dignitas euthanasia organisation, which was captured by film cameras following him during his final days in an apartment in Zurich.

The resulting documentary, titled 'Right To Die?', shows Ewert passing away with his wife Mary, 37, at his side. It is being broadcast tonight at 9pm on Sky Real Lives.

In law, Dignitas is allowed only to assist suicide, not to carry out the final act, and that is why Ewert was given a timer to bite on so that it would turn off his ventilator.

Retired social worker Arthur Bernard, who has acted as an "escort" in more than 100 assisted suicides for Dignitas, also mixed a lethal dose of barbiturate and poured it into a glass.

Ewert drank that through a pink straw.

"Give me some apple juice. Please can I have some music?" the Sun quoted him as saying after drinking the lethal dose.

"Thank you" were the words he said moments before his eyes closed for the final time, to which his wife replied by saying: "Safe journey. Have a good sleep."

About 45 minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

Switzerland is the only country in the world where assisted suicide is legal for non-residents, and, as the law stands, one has to take the fatal dose one one's own.(ANI)