The controversy about a person's right to die at a time and place of
their own choosing has become focused on the Swiss organisation Dignitas,
and its founder, civil rights lawyer, Ludwig Minelli. Dignitas, based
in Zurich Switzerland, is the only place in the world where a person
seeking an assisted suicide can be helped to die, no matter where they
are from. For a year, Oscar-winning Canadian director John Zaritsky
had exclusive access to Dignitas, and its clients. In this program,
Zaritsky tells two interwoven stories about suicide. In the first,
he follows a terminally ill man, 59-year-old American Craig Ewert,
through the last four days of his life - preparing to leave his
adopted home in England for the last time, then on his journey
to Zurich, and into the care of Dignitas, with whose help he will
end his life. The second story follows Canadian couple George
and Betty Coumbias, who test that philosophy, and the Swiss tolerance
for a law that some say is giving Zurich a reputation for suicide
tourism. George has terminal heart disease, and would like to choose
the time of his death with the help of Dignitas; his wife Betty is
determined to die with him, even though she is perfectly healthy.

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