Catch up TV

Episode 12 May 2025

A look at patients in California and Canada who are planning to end their lives by lethal medication, as well as discussion with the doctors who help them.\n\nThe programme explores how assisted dying has developed since it was introduced in both jurisdictions in 2016, speaking with campaigners who argue the law puts the vulnerable at risk and with doctors who regard it as dangerous. In Canada, it now accounts for around 1 in 20 of all deaths, whereas in California it is 1 in 300.\n\nIn Canada, patients no longer need to be terminally ill to access medical assistance in dying. Most deaths involve a lethal injection by doctors. The law proposed in England and Wales is based, in part, on the California model, where adults must be expected to die within six months, be approved by two doctors, and self-administer, usually by swallowing, the lethal dose. \n\nIn California, the documentary follows 80-year-old Wayne and is present, with his family, when he has an assisted death. There's also another terminally ill patient who has decided she wants death to come naturally.

Source: BBC 2