BBC host admits to "Mercy Killing" on the air

UPDATE #2 AT BOTTOM OF POST: POLICE DECIDE GOSLING LIED.

UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST: BBC HOST ARRESTED.


When I heard this story today the first thing that came to mind, the first thing that I'm sure came to many people's mind, is Howard Beale in the movie Network. In the film, Beale (played by Peter Finch) had become disillusioned with the way the media was going, and the way the world was going, and he was just tired of it all.

And he said, on the air, that he was "mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore". He took to his pulpit, so to speak, to inspire the audience to just stop accepting things that happened, to stop feeling that there was nothing they could do. He implored everyone to go to the window and scream at the top of their lungs, that they were mad as hell and they weren't going to take it anymore.

I've always loved that scene, and yet I always viewed it as pure fiction, which of course it was. I felt that there's no way anyone would ever do that in real life. No one would risk everything they had to take a stand like that, and that even if they would, by the time someone got to that point, that Howard Beale was, they would not be on the air, they would have been removed by then.

Throw in the fact that there's usually a delay between the live newscasts, and what we see on TV and of course the FCC cracking down on what you can and can't say, it sort of prevents that type of thing from occurring.

And yet it has happened, although not in the same sense that Beale did it. On the BBC, a prominant tv host has admitted to murdering his lover who was terminally ill, suffering from AIDS. The doctors had said there was nothing more they could do, and unable to see his lover suffering anymore, he asked the doctor to leave, and then smothered him with a pillow.

This has, predictably, caused an uproar in the UK where assisted suicide is a hot button topic. Adding even more gas to the fire, is the fact that this segment didn't go over the air live, it was actually filmed back in December. The BBC have been criticized for not reporting this to the police, however they have stated that they were under no obligation to do so.

Here's the video




I watched that video and just stared slackjawed at my computer screen. This doesn't happen. As I mentioned earlier, I just never imagined that a news host would do something like this? And to a degree you have to give it to him. The man has been living with this secret for years, he's been unable to live anymore with this secret, and he had to tell someone, anyone. And he did what he felt was the right thing, and used his position at the BBC to put this out to the broadest audience.

Now Gosling says that he's not trying to make a point for the issue of assisted suicides or "mercy killings" or anything like that, however I think he has in fact done that.

He's put this out, not by doing an interview, or by turning himself in, he went on a show that he hosted and admitted this.

I really don't know what to compare this to. I'm still stunned. I was telling my friend about it, and showed him the video and we both had the same look on our faces, like "this has to be a joke".

The issue of assisted suicide isn't much more tame here in the States, as it is abroad apparantly. One only has to look back to the Terry Schiavo case to remember that this country is full of people who identify as being against that type of thing.

And yet I have a hard time deciding how this makes me feel. On the one hand, I don't believe in taking another's life. That's not a decision I think is mine to make, for sure. However, I can't help but feel extremely sympathetic towards Gosling. I mean, I can't imagine having to make that decision.

I've been around terminally ill patients before, and I've seen that look in their eyes that are pratically begging someone to please end the pain they are going through. I've always resisted the urge to speak in absolutes with situations like this, because unless you are someone who deals with pain like this, unless you are someone who lives through this type of pain, then you really can't say. It's easy for me, as someone that, while I deal with pain on a daily basis, is nothing like terminal AIDS or cancer.

It'll be interesting to see how this story turns out. It seems that Gosling is refusing to talk to the police about it, and that's gotta be going over really well with the police over there.

We'll see how this turns out, but damn this is a tough situation.

UPDATE: 3:09pm PST

Veteran BBC Host Ray Gosling has been arrested after his admission during a news documentary aired recently in England, that he killed his lover who was terminally ill from AIDS.

A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire Police in central England said officers "this morning arrested a 70-year-old Nottingham man on suspicion of murder following comments on the BBC's Inside Out programme on Monday evening."

Gosling's confession comes amid a fierce debate about so-called mercy killings and whether people with terminal illnesses be allowed to commit assisted suicide.

UPDATE 2: 8/19/2010

Raw Story has an article up talking about how the Police have decided that Gosling was lying about killing a former lover on TV, and have decided to charge him with "wasting police time".

Ray Gosling was arrested on suspicion of murder in February after making the dramatic confession, which is thought to date back to the 1980s, and was interviewed several times by police during a major investigation.


But now the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says there is evidence to show that the confession was "false".


Gosling, 71, could face six months in jail if found guilty of wasting police time.


"The police established that there was sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of proving that Mr Gosling's confession was false," said Helen Allen of the CPS in a statement.
Story continues below...


"After careful consideration of all the evidence, I decided that Mr Gosling should be prosecuted for wasting police time."


He is now due to appear in court on September 14.

This story just gets crazier and crazier. I can only guess that ratings and attention is why he did it, if his confession was false. Print this post