Too many media outlets allow their airways to be used to promote assisted suicide by showing the deed being done.
Recall 60 Minutes played Jack Kevorkian’s home video of his murder of Thomas Youk. That landed him in prison for years, right where he belonged.
Now–and not for the first time–the BBC will apparently be airing the dying moment of an assisted suicide. From the Daily Mail story:
The BBC will broadcast the final moments of assisted suicide campaigner Simon Binner, it has been reported. Binner, who had aggressive motor neurone disease, ended his life at the Eternal Spirit centre in Switzerland in October after announcing his suicide plan on professional networking site LinkedIn.
A documentary called ‘How to Die: Simon’s Choice’ – which was filmed over the last few months of his life – will be shown on BBC2 next month.
Here’s the thing. What BBC is doing violates the WHO guidelines on reporting about suicide. From, “Preventing Suicides: A Recourse for Professionals:”
WHAT NOT TO DO
• Don’t publish photographs or suicide notes.
• Don’t report specific details of the method used…
• Don’t glorify or sensationalize suicide
Showing the man as he dies isn’t news that the BBC had to cover as good journalists. It is suicide porn and a form of political advocacy.
And, it can give despairing ill or disabled people the lethal idea that assisted suicide is the best way out.
But on this issue, increasingly, that is how the media run.