25. Suicide Voyeur: Why is assisted dying a crime?

Bad People

BBC

True Crime

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2021

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

William Melchert-Dinkle posed as a female nurse online and encouraged people with suicidal thoughts to hang themselves. He even watched some of them carry it out via webcam. He was convicted of assisting suicide and given a prison sentence. But, this is an unusual case. Does criminalising assisted dying protect vulnerable people or take the power away from people to choose when and how they die? Geoff Whaley suffered from motor neurone disease and campaigned for assisted suicide to be legalised so his wife could legally help him travel to Switzerland to end his life at Dignitas. He advocated for the right to die with dignity and physician-assisted suicide, where doctors prescribe drugs for eligible patients to self-administer to end their own life. Tony Nicklinson suffered from locked in syndrome and campaigned for voluntary euthanasia to be legal. Do laws against assisted dying discriminate against people with disabilities? On this episode of Bad People Dr Julia Shaw and comedian Sofie Hagen discuss whether we can strike a balance between protecting vulnerable people while also empowering people to have autonomy over their own death. This episode includes audio form Dateline NBC and Channel 4’s Dispatches. Warning: This episode contains strong language and discussion of suicide. CREDITS Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producer: Caroline Steel Artwork: Kingsley Nebechi Music: Matt Chandler Series Editor: Rami Tzabar Academic Consultants for The Open University: Dr. Zoe Walkington Dr. Camilla Elphick Commissioning Assistant Producer: Adam Eland Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps Bad People is produced in partnership with The Open University and is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds #BadPeople_BBC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Gary Lednika here with Alan Shira and Michael Richards to say the match of the day top 10 podcast is back
0:07.4	We'll be ranking our footballing top 10s and debuting. It was right. Well, it's don't be me. Not a champ. It's Gary
0:14.7	First season wonders to goalkeeping blunders. Nothing is off the table. You had a few blunders in your day, didn't you Gary?
0:22.0	Yeah, match of the day top 10. Listen only on BBC sounds
0:27.0	BBC sounds music radio podcasts on this episode we talk about death, dying and suicide. There might also be some strong language
0:38.1	Three, two, one
0:41.9	I have what researchers call high mortality salience. Have you ever heard of that? No
0:47.7	So it basically just means that I'm aware of my mortality. That's on my mind a lot right and so most nights at some point
0:55.2	While I'm trying to get sleep a thought creeps into my head and it always seems urgent and profound and I get this rush of adrenaline and it's
1:02.5	Julia you will die one day remember that it's like this urgent
1:06.4	Little voice in my head and I'm shaking awake and I know it sounds morbid
1:10.9	But I do the thing where a picture how I might die about what will kill you like
1:15.5	How to tackle or
1:17.0	Shark attack or it almost doesn't matter why this sort of what has killed me
1:21.7	It's more the sort of moments of realization that you're in those last moments and the seconds where you know that it's over
1:28.5	And you have to come to terms of the life that you've lived and I sometimes actually hold my breath to simulate it and think
1:34.6	What do I want those last thoughts to be? Wow. I only do that when I'm on a plane
1:39.0	I always just assume the plane's gonna crash especially if there's like
1:42.3	Turbulence or just if I feel happy
1:45.4	If I go on a plane happy, I just know it's gonna crash because that would just be so typical
1:50.3	Every time I travel especially for work
1:52.0	I send I love you to my loved ones as the plane is taking off so that if it's my last message
	...

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