Craig Ewert

Former Chicago, Illinois, professor Craig Ewert's death by assisted suicide was the subject of a documentary that was expected to be broadcast on Britain's Sky Television on December 10, 2008. The 56-year-old Ewert, who suffered from the motor neuron disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, can be seen in the documentary drinking a lethal dose of barbituates and then switching off his ventilator with his teeth. Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky filmed Ewert's death for the documentary Right to Die: The Suicide Tourist.Sky News: PM: Don't Sensationalise Suicide (December 10, 2008) CNN: TV channel to broadcast assisted suicide (December 10, 2008)

"If I go through with it I die, as I must at some point. If I don't go through with it, my choice is essentially to suffer and to inflict suffering on my family and then die. Possibly in a way that is considerably more stressful and painful than this way."Sky News: PM: Don't Sensationalise Suicide (December 10, 2008)

"You can watch only so much of yourself drain away before you look at what is left and say 'This is an empty shell.' Once I become completely paralyzed then I am nothing more than a living tomb that takes in nutrients through a tube in the stomach— it's painful."FOX News: Man's Assisted Suicide to Air on British TV (December 10, 2008)