Craig Ewert, 59, a retired university professor, opted for assisted suicide rather than spend the rest of his life locked in a "living tomb."  The final moments of terminally ill patients have been broadcast on British television before, but never in the case of an assisted suicide. Television watchdogs expressed concern that the programme, Right to Die, which will be shown on Sky Real Lives on Wednesday night, would promote euthanasia.

Mr Ewert, who suffered from motor neurone disease (MND), was filmed as he passed away, comforted by Mary, his wife of 37 years, at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich in September 2006.

Mrs Ewert pledges her love for her husband and kisses him moments before he consumes a mixture of sedatives and turns off his life-support ventilator with a mouth-operated switch.

A composed Mrs Ewert says to him: "Can I give you a big kiss? I love you sweetheart so much. Have a safe journey and see you some time."

Mr Ewert, from Harrogate, North Yorks, died five months after he was diagnosed with the illness. It left him without the use of his legs, in a wheel-chair, and dependent on full time care from his wife. He needed a ventilator to help him breathe

When the illness threatened to rob him of his ability to swallow, he decided to take his life.

He told the programme he welcomed euthanasia as an alternative to "utter hell."

He said: "I am tired of the disease but I am not tired of living. I still enjoy life enough that I would like to continue but the thing is that I really cannot.

"If I opt for life then that is choosing to be tortured rather than end this journey and start the next one. I cannot take the risk."

He added: "You can watch only so much of yourself drain away before you look at what is left and say 'This is an empty shell'."

The Ewerts have two children Katrina, 33, and Ivan, 35. They moved to Yorkshire from their native America when Mr Ewert took early retirement. The children were given the choice to be with their father but decided against it.

Speaking three days before his death, Mr Ewert said: "I have had a pretty good run. I think I can take my bow and say, 'Thanks, it has been fun, I would do it again'."

Dignitas has helped more than 700 people from 25 countries to die since 1999.

In England, Wales and Scotland, deliberate or 'active' euthanasia leaves anyone assisting a suicide liable to a charge of murder.

This has led terminally ill British patients to take their own lives in Switzerland where the laws permits assisted suicide.

However, if a family member or friends assists in administering the lethal dose, they can face prosecution when they return to Britain.

Last month, Debbie Purdy, 45, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, lost her landmark legal attempt to clarify British law on assisted suicide.

She feared her husband would be prosecuted in Britain if he travelled with her to Switzerland when she took her own life with Dignitas.

In another case, police are investigating the death of a rugby player, Daniel James, who died with the help of Dignitas.

Mr James, 23, from Worcester, was paralysed in a rugby accident.

Police are investigating the role of his parents, who travelled with him to Switzerland, and a report will be referred to the complex case unit of the Crown

Prosecution Service.

Last year, Independent Television was criticized after it broadcast a documentary which falsely claimed to show the final moments of an Alzheimer's patient, Malcolm Pointon, 66. But he had entered a coma and died three days after the filming.

* Right to Die will be shown at 9pm Wednesday 10 December.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3690447/Assisted-suicide-to-be-shown-on-television-for-first-time.html