A Tory MP has attacked the BBC for treating assisted suicide as a “matter of fun” in a new sitcom due to air this month.
The controversial BBC Three comedy “Way to Go” is about three young men who start a business by building a machine that can kill people who have a terminal disease.
Conservative MP Mark Pritchard criticised the broadcaster, saying: “This is a sensitive and complex issue that should be handled with compassion and understanding.”
Fun
He added: “It is a sad fact that assisted dying is now regarded a ‘revenue stream’ to some foreign clinics and clearly as a matter of fun by some parts of the BBC.”
In one scene in the show, someone dies in a matter of seconds after the lever of the machine is pulled to inject a fatal dose.
And when another “client” is found for the service, one character says: “He’s got stomach cancer. How fantastic is that!”
Difficult
Comedy producer Jon Plowman, who is behind shows such as Little Britain, backed the sitcom.
He said: “Way To Go is a show about a current and difficult issue but it treats its serious subject in the same way that Arsenic And Old Lace dealt with old lady poisoners or Kind Hearts And Coronets dealt with aristocratic murders.”
The BBC caused outrage last year, when it showed a documentary of a motor-neurone sufferer being helped to die at a Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.
Dr Peter Saunders, director of the Care Not Killing group, accused the BBC of “cheerleading” for legalising assisted suicide.