London - The planned screening Wednesday of a television documentary showing a man ending his own life in an assisted suicide has renewed controversy over "the right to die" in Britain.

The film, by Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky, records the suicide of 59-year-old Craig Ewert, a US university professor in Britain who allowed the filming of his death in September 2006 in a clinic in Switzerland.

Ewert suffered from motor neurone disease and chose to die rather than endure the "torture" he feared from his degenerative condition.

At the Dignitas clinic in Zurich, with his wife Mary by his side, the father-of-two will be seen drinking a mixture of sedatives and turning off his own ventilator using his teeth, advance reports said.

The film called Right To Die shows him outlining his options as "death, or suffering and death."

"This is an issue that more and more people are confronting and this documentary is an informative, articulate and educated insight into the decisions some people have to make," said a spokeswoman for the Sky programme Real Lives, due to be screened at 2100 GMT Wednesday. (dpa)