Introduced by David Dimbleby
Voluntary euthanasia is one of the most personal of public issues: whether or not a dying person should be able to request death and, then, be killed.
Dr Gertruida Postma , the family doctor in a small Dutch village, believes doctors have a moral obligation to practise euthanasia but found her belief put to the hardest test when it was not a patient but her mother who asked to be killed. The subsequent court-case split public opinion in Holland.
Tonight her trial is re-enacted in front of a panel of doctors, clergy-men, lawyers and those who themselves face the problems of dealing with seriously ill relatives: the prelude to their debate upon whether or not voluntary euthanasia should be made legal in Britain.
Designer JOHN HURST Producer TAM FRY
Editor MICHAEl. TOWNSON
' The object is a peaceful and dignified death ': pages 9 and 10