A British television channel plans to show a film about an American man who commits assisted suicide at a Swiss clinic, reigniting debate over an issue that strongly divides opinion in Britain. Opponents called the broadcast a ratings-grabbing stunt.

Feelings about the issue ran so high yesterday that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was asked about the programme in Parliament.

The 2006 suicide of 59-year-old Craig Ewert was to be shown yesterday evening in a documentary on the Sky Real Lives digital channel.

Ewert had degenerative motor neuron disease and died at a clinic in Zurich run by the assisted suicide group Dignitas, with his wife Mary at his side. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland in some circumstances and organisations there provide suicide services.

Ewert lived in Britain, where assisted suicide and euthanasia are banned.

Film festivals

The film by Oscar-winning documentary maker John Zaritsky has been screened at film festivals around the world and was shown on Canadian television last year. But it was attracting controversy in Britain, where previous programmes on the topic have stopped short of showing the actual moment of death.

Originally called The Suicide Tourist, the film has been titled Right to Die? for its British broadcast.

Television ratings

Peter Saunders of the anti-euthanasia lobby group Care Not Killing said the decision to show Ewert's death was a "cynical attempt to boost television ratings".

Lawmaker Phil Willis, who represents Ewert's home town of Harrogate in northern England, accused the film of promoting assisted suicide.