|
|
|
|
By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Feb 16 | British viewers of the BBC Inside Out programme, were stunned when veteran broadcaster Ray Gosling, shown walking through a graveyard weeping, confessed to having assisted in the death of a former lover. In the piece that aired yesterday, Gosling said;
"I killed someone once... He was a young chap, he’d been my lover and he got Aids," he told the viewers, in a feature on end-of-life decisions.
"In hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, ’There’s nothing we can do’, and he was in terrible, terrible pain. “I said to the doctor, ’Leave me just for a bit’ and he went away. I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead. “The doctor came back and I said, ’He’s gone’. Nothing more was ever said.”
Mr Gosling did not reveal the name of the lover but said that it was a secret that he had kept for "quite a long time." He claimed that he and the young man had made a pact that he would help him to die if he was in intolerable pain and could not recover.
"He was in terrible pain, I was there and I saw it. It breaks you into pieces... When you love someone, it is difficult to see them suffer.”
According to a spokesperson for the BBC;
"We were not aware of Mr Gosling's comments until the BBC Inside Out programme was shown." He added, "The BBC is under no legal obligation to refer the matter to the police in these circumstances."
This contrasts sharply with revelations from British police sources that the BBC was aware of the contents of the show as it was filmed in early November of 2009. The police did acknowledge that the BBC was cooperating with the investigation which was launched by the Nottinghamshire Police after Gosling confessed on air to smothering his lover.
For his part when asked about the police investigation in an interview with the BBC News this morning, Gosling was quoted as saying;
"They can try. I'm not going to tell them anything. I'm not going to tell them anything. That was the pact. We had a pact."
Assisted suicide is illegal in Britain under the 1961 Suicide Act, and is punishable by up to 14 years in jail. The law has been challenged after a number of high profile cases of mercy killings.
Activists on both sides of the issue have already weighed in on Gosling's confession. Dr Peter Saunders, of Care Not Killing, said that it was a myth that patients needed to die in terrible pain, and it would be a tragedy if Mr Gosling's story fueled that myth.
"The story that Mr Gosling had described was not one of helping someone to die but of murder, Saunders added. "On the basis of the testimony given, legally speaking, this is not a case of assisted suicide – helping someone to kill himself – but of murder –actively ending the life of another person."
Sarah Wootton, president of the UK organisation Dignity in Dying, said:
“This case yet again demonstrates that this is a real and present problem, which can affect us all. The law is out of step with what society needs and wants. Crucially, Ray Gosling’s loved one was terminally ill and clearly asked for help to die when he was suffering unbearably at the end of his life. This illustrates a need for formal assisted dying legislation to help those who want choice at the end of life, as well as protect people who may be vulnerable to coercion."
Asked why he had confessed, the broadcaster said that other people's stories in the programme had impelled him to be truthful.
"Everybody else had revealed themselves to me, and I felt I had to reveal myself to them," he said. "I know that if there is a heaven he will be looking down and he will be proud of me," he said. "I don't do worries. I did what I did from my heart. In my country, for my people, in my way. They expect that from me. I would have felt a traitor if I hadn't."
Ray Gosling * Inside Out * Photo by the BBC News
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
 |
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
|
|
|
In my life I have been the happy owner of four cats and seven dogs, all of whom fell ill and had to have their lives ended to save them from suffering.
I am with Mr Gosling on the basis that his partner made a sentient choice.
My dogs and cats had no choice, but I, we, had to make the choice for them based on the best information available.
The more interesting part of this item for me is that Mr Gosling is gay. Not that he is gay exactly, but that he has simply told us he is, and he is comfortable with that.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Plainly what he did was murder and what it goes to show is that murder isn't always wrong. What he did was profoundly moral. It's quite plain, too, that the doctor in the case agreed. I think only the religious will think Ray was wrong. Religious 'morality' should not appeal to gay people anyway.
It's one of the reasons why I would be unhappy to discover my doctor was a Roman Catholic since his religious beliefs would be in conflict with some moral behaviour. Anyone knowing someone they love was about to give birth should be worse worried about things like that; they might find such a doctor saving the life of the child at the expense of the life of the mother.
However what the Nottinghamshire police say they are about to do - mount an investigation and maybe arrest him and try him - is plainly wrong. What possible good can come of such an action? It's a waste of taxpayers' money.
It has long been a principle of public policy that one doesn't bother to insist on the exact letter of the law when no good purpose would be served by it. Maybe we should be suspicious when someone claims a murder was a 'mercy killing', but when someone is at death's door anyway the only difference is a few hours less pain. When my mother was on her deathbed the doctor rang me up and asked whether I wanted him to do his best to resuscitate her or to do his best to keep her comfortable. I chose the latter and within an hour he rang me back to tell me she had died.
I do hope Ray Gosling is right in his hope that the police will be unable to do anything.
Love,
Anthony
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
|
|
|
The police must investigate. They do not decide whether to prosecute or not, their role is to investigate. It would be profoundly disturbing if they did not investigate.
It is, however, unlikely to be in the public interest to prosecute, but the DPP will prosecute if sufficient evidence is available.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gosling has now been arrested. I can see complications in proceeding. At the moment the police only have his confession and if he retracts it they will have to try and find the doctor who signed the death certificate.
In this country there is no statute of limitations. I regret that for however heinous the crime there must be a time when the criminal is passed over to a higher justice. For instance I see little point in pursuing John Damaniuk (sp?) unless it is for revenge, and a feeling of moral superiority.
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I don't see, Timmy, why it would be disturbing if they didn't investigate. Every day the police decide what to do with their time and there are always many more potential enquiries than there are resources to spend on them.
Arresting an old man in sheltered accommodation for a putative crime that may have been committed fifteen years ago is just not a sensible way to spend police resources. It isn't as if anyone is going to be deterred from a similar crime by punishing a perpetrator. It isn't as if society is going to suffer if he is allowed to continue to walk the streets.
I don't understand why people so slavishly tolerate unthinking law enforcement. Surely every thinking person realises that there are a good many laws which often ought not to be enforced.
Love,
Anthony
[Updated on: Thu, 18 February 2010 11:41] |
|
|
|
|
Goto Forum:
|
] 
A Place of Safety
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
British Broadcaster Kills His Lover. Is this really wrong? 
