On Monday, during a show about end-of-life decisions, broadcaster-filmmaker Ray Gosling broke from the script and said, “I killed someone once.”
Gosling made the confession during the BBC program Inside Out. He spoke of a lover who had AIDS and was in a hospital. “The doctor said, ‘There’s nothing we can do,’ and he went away. I picked up a pillow and smothered him until he was dead.”
Gosling, a familiar media figure in Britain, has been arrested; assisted suicide is illegal in England and Wales. He has been released on bail.
The controversy over assisted suicide is complex, to say the least. But it’s rare indeed for a TV broadcaster to admit to committing this act publicly. In a subsequent news interview, Gosling said, “I have no views on euthanasia… I’m surprised at all the fuss”:
It’s difficult to watch these clips without feeling sympathy for Gosling, but it seems likely that his television admission is going to stir up new debate about euthanasia, don’t you think? I also cannot imagine the host of any American documentary making such an on-air admission, can you?
Ken, you realize you just started a $#!+ storm of epic proportions, right?
I’m guestimating the # of comments to be around 300…
I agree with you Elizabeth. I’ve read about this on other websites and found it interesting, but for EW to be posting it just seems like its begging for controversy. Here come the homophobes and nutjobs. *sigh*
My thoughts exactly. I’m an avid reader of EW, and never understand why they wade into such volatile, non-entertainment stories. Assisted Suicide? Really? How does this fall under the purview of Entertainment?
Maybe because a filmmaker said it on broadcast television? Films and television are usually considered entertainment.
well Ken WAS watching t.v. after all…
DW, you wanna talk entertainment…that confession was compelling entertainment. You know most of those listeners probably stopped in their tracks and thought “Holy S***, did he just say he killed someone?”
Dear Google, please send as many pageviews as possible to this post. Yours truly, EW.com
I really hope that this does once again bring assisted suicide back into the spotlight and encourage a robust dialogue on the topic. And hopefully will remove some of the stigma (and illegality) associated with it.
I can’t speak for the States, but the entire reason that he spoke about this in the first place is that the law on assisted suicide is on the verge of being changed – or at least clarified – in the UK because of a recent case of a woman with MS demanding to know whether her husband would be prosecuted for helping her die and the courts refusing to tell her, so there is already a huge amount of debate about it going on. The tide of public opinion in the UK is certainly turning in favour, or rather in sympathy, with family members and close friends who help loved ones to end their lives. However, if anything can ever be proved with regards to Gosling’s case (he has just been arrested on suspicion of murder), it is unlikely that he will be counted under the protection of the law, because it still relies on the person who has chosen to die making the first move to end their life. It will also probably only be applicable to those with close relationships with the deceased – which he has admitted he doesn’t have. However, it is unlikely that anything will ever be proven since he won’t reveal the name of the person he helped to die.
I am in complete agreement with Winona. We treat horses better than other human beings. When horses are suffering, they are put to sleep. Same with other animals. All I know is when I am in tremendous pain and there is nothing a doctor can do for me, I hope someone puts me to sleep as well.
Very interesting. Thank you for bringing this to our attention Ken.
Wow. Just…..Wow.
Sad story. I don’t know if I could do it, but everybody has their own story. Hard to know what you’d do in that position – as the person in pain or the person watching it.
I’m not sure smothering someone should count as assissted suicide. I would bet that’s a rather unpleasant way to go. Did the victim ask him to do this or he took it upon himself? Sounds like murder to me.
um, this. it’s one thing for a liscenced doctor to help a dying patient who asks for relief and quite another to smother someone with a pillow at (apparently) your own discretion. also, the legal implications of this are fantastic if he’s let off.
While I think the topic of euthanasia/assisted suicide is an important one to have, can’t help but think that this story will be more sensationalist than insightful and meaningful. sometimes the heart of the matter is hard to hear above the noise…and for this story I anticipate alot of noise.
sorry to give my 2 cents but i am all for euthanasia being applied in hospitals. just recently a relative on mine was in a coma and brain dead, the took him off a life support but he was still breathing- so what did the do? they stopped feeding him until he starved to death. now I believe that is absolutely barbaric and brain dead or not, he suffered… He wouldve been in a lot less pain if they just did him in after they took him off life support. I dont think anyone with any terminal disease should suffer if they dont want to and I dont think there is anything wrong with that.
I think euthanasia is a very complicated issue. I see both sides. But I don’t think that this man was necessarily in the right. Is there proof of this alleged pact? Do we just take his word for it? Euthanasia involves a person taking his or her OWN life, but this man took someone else’s life… That’s very complicated. Some judge will probably have to make a tough decision after examining all the evidence.
You’re mistaken. Taking his or her own life is suicide, but euthanasia is assisted.
No, euthanasia is actually ending someone’s life directly without the person being physically involved in it ie. actively ending the life of someone in a coma rather than simply letting them die, or giving a paralysed person a fatal injection because they cannot do it themselves, even with their consent. Assisted suicide is providing a person with the means to end their life or (arguably) continuing a process that they have deliberately begun – ie continuing to administer drugs after a person has lost consciousness.
wow. I can’t imagine anyone else really doing that on air
I wasn’t there so I will not comment on the morality of what happened. It will simply say that I think the entire situation is probably heartbreaking for everyone involved.
You probably had the most sane take on this, Sean.
maybe
Where are the usual contrarians? You know, the ones who have to set everyone straight, usually starting off by saying “People!”?
Ok. I’ll do it, then.
People! Blah blah blah blah
Miss me yet?
I think it’s so funny that we live in a world where we will (quite rightly) put a pet out of it’s misery and ease their suffering, but when it comes to loved ones who are dying and have no chance to recover we are forced to have them suffer and be in pain – it’s been proven that, for example, when someone is dying of cancer, the morphine really isn’t effective in pain cessation, it is administered more to make the loved ones feel better about it. I for one wouldn’t want anyone I loved or myself to have to endure endless pain and suffering. I think the cruel and unusal punishment is allowing this practice of forcing people to suffer to go on.
Humans are not pets. And, if someone is sick and dying, it’s not up to other people to decide if their quality of life is “worth” keeping.
But I think we should give the dying person a voice as to whether he or she wants to continue.
I totally agree with you! I can’t understand how it is humane to put a pet/animal out of their misery, but not a human.
The difficulty is in framing the law. It’s a question of whether granting the right to help a loved one die might allow for abuses – for example, people harming elderly or terminally ill relatives for inheritance and then claiming that that person wanted to die. Of course we can all sympathise with someone wanting to be there for a loved one who no longer wishes to suffer, but you also want to make sure that any law on euthanasia or assisted suicide does not end up letting murderers off the hook. People also worry that it will lead to an attitude that the seriously disabled, elderly and terminally ill have no value as human beings – though personally I think that is a false fear. Though it is likely that the law is going to move in favour of some forms of assisted suicide in the UK, it is going to be a long, slow process for the reasons already listed. Of course there are also religious ideas about the sanctity of life that are important to a lot of people, though of course we can argue that that is a question of personal choice and belief.
It’s also worth noting that animals are put down because they aren’t considered capable of making conscious decisions, and so allowing them to go on living in pain seems needless when they are not even able to value their own existence. Obviously that is not the case with any human being. In addition, sick animals are often put down because owners cannot afford medical treatments, or because the animal can no longer perform the function they were bought for in the first place. God forbid that should ever happen with any people.