Why "How to die?" - my question

I see I'm quoted in the Daily Mail today. Quite fairly I'm glad to say, although I don't think of myself as a "campaigner". Just someone with an insidious and very slow type of MND who is quite concerned about how little coverage good and natural dying receives in the media - of whom the BBC is just one example. And it matters because the media does a lot to shape public opinion, including in the area of suicide - which is of course the subject of tonight's BBC documentary, "How to die - Simon's choice". I shan't be watching tonight - but I might catch up tomorrow. Maybe the Mail's article tells me enough, including that Simon Binner's widow, Debbie, would have preferred him not to have gone to Switzerland. "I would have preferred him not to go,’ she admits. ‘There is a beauty in caring for someone who is dying. I loved Simon. I would have loved to nurse and cherish him to the end." What an amazing woman! 

In 2000 the World Health Organisation issued guidelines about the way the media should treat the matter of suicide. Near the beginning, there's a section headed: "IMPACT OF MEDIA REPORTING ON SUICIDE

"One of the earliest known associations between the media and suicide arose from Goethe’s novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther (The Sorrows of Young Werther), published in 1774. In that work the hero shoots himself after an ill-fated love, and shortly after its publication there were many reports of young men using the same method to commit suicide. This resulted in a ban of the book in several places (1). Hence the term “Werther effect”, used in the technical literature to designate imitation (or copycat) suicides.
"Other studies of the media’s role in suicide include a review going back to the last century in the United States (2). Another famous and recent case concerns the book Final Exit written by Derek Humphry: after the publication of this book, there was an increase in suicides in New York using the methods described (3). The publication of Suicide, mode d’emploi in France also led to an increase in the number of suicides (4). According to Philips and colleagues (5), the degree of publicity given to a suicide story is directly correlated with the number of subsequent suicides. Cases of suicide involving celebrities have had a particularly strong impact (6).
"Television also influences suicidal behaviour. Philips (7) showed an increase in suicide up to 10 days after television news reports of cases of suicide. As in the printed media, highly publicized stories that appear in multiple programmes on multiple channels seem to carry the greatest impact - all the more so if they involve celebrities. However, there are conflicting reports about the impact of fictional programmes: some show no effect, while others cause an increase in suicidal behaviour (8).
"The association between stage plays or music and suicidal behaviour has been poorly investigated and remains mainly anecdotal....
"Nevertheless, there is always the possibility that publicity about suicide might make the idea of suicide seem “normal”. Repeated and continual coverage of suicide tends to induce and promote suicidal preoccupations, particularly among adolescents and young adults."

The normalisation of suicide as a remedy for chronic and terminal illness, or disability, is the reason last November I wrote to Lord Hall, the BBC's Director General. Here's my letter, followed by the delayed reply from one of his underlings.

26^th November 2015

Dear Lord Hall

I am writing to you on a matter of personal concern to me as I have a chronic and life-limiting disease.

You were quoted two days ago as saying that the next charter should not be an attempt to tell the BBC what programmes it could or could not make.  Whilst I agree with that aim completely in principle, it is most important that the Corporation also maintains its commitment to editorial impartiality in all its output, especially in news.  To that end it needs to be accountable, ultimately to those who pay for it through their representatives.

My particular concern is to do with the Corporation’s treatment of end-of-life issues.  Although generally your news outlets make an effort to represent opposing views when the subject is debated, there seems to me a consistent disposition to focus nationally on stories of people ending their own lives (travelling to Dignitas etc) rather than on the many more who choose a natural death and the work of hospices, palliative care doctors and nurses.  I do of course realise that news consists of the exceptional.  Nevertheless, the media both reflect public opinion and mould public perception.

My wife woke up recently to hear an account of a ‘beautiful’ death at Dignitas.  A few weeks before, Victoria Derbyshire did a feature on a man who had announced his imminent death there.  I was in touch with the planning producer at the time who wrote to me.  ‘I will certainly talk to my editor about your suggestion of covering good end of life care on our programme – as I think that would definitely be a very interesting and important issue to cover.’   I have only praise for that producer who was more than helpful.

What concerns me is that inevitably in an organisation as large as the BBC there is a danger of an editorial orthodoxy which ironically discourages diversity of viewpoint in its creative output.  There are many inspiring stories of surviving against the odds and of good natural dying out there, which are newsworthy, and yet we see and hear precious few of them, it seems to me.

The media affect the mood and culture of our society.  To focus on stories of death can induce an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness in the audience.  Whatever is in the next charter, I hope it will keep in place some sort of independent oversight in order to ensure negative and positive are balanced in your output. 

Yours sincerely

Michael Wenham

Lord Hall of Birkenhead

Director-General

BBC

London W1A 1AA

cc         Rona Fairhead, BBC Trust

            Ed Vaizey MP

            The Rt Hon John Whittingdale

As the BBC might themselves put it, Lord Hall declined to reply but the corporation did issue a statement. A bland and predictable response, sadly. It remains to be seen whether we see any more positive programmes to encourage those of us with incurable disabling conditions that there is an alternative to topping ourselves.