TORONTO, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Television broadcasters in Canada say they've banned a TV ad planned by a group advocating doctor-assisted suicide.
Dr. Philip Nitschke, an Australian physician advocating doctor-assisted suicide in that country, had planned to run the ad in advance of presenting his "Safe Exit" workshops in Toronto, Vancouver and several U.S. cities next month, The Globe and Mail reported.
The Television Bureau of Canada imposed the ban Friday saying the ad, combined with Nitschke's open instruction on how to commit suicide might break Canadian law.
The bureau, the self-regulating body of Canadian broadcasters, said it was inundated by a "great volume of e-mails threatening, pleading and warning us not to approve (the) commercial, as doing so would be a violation of the criminal code."
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In the ad, an ill man in pajamas sits on a bed, counting the many decisions he's made in life, from his choice of haircut to his favorite make of car.
"What I didn't choose is being terminally ill. I didn't choose to starve to death because eating is like swallowing razor blades. I certainly didn't choose to watch my family go through it with me. I've made my final choice. I just need the government to listen," the man says before the screen fades to white.
Much of the opposition was the result of a lobbying campaign by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, which is trying to block Nitschke's speaking tour.
"I believe in free speech, but guys like [Dr.] Nitschke are dangerous and they don't care who dies from their ideology," Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the coalition, wrote online.
