Although Witcher says in the program he will take a lethal dose of drugs before the paralysis advances too far, he soon finds himself helpless to do so and his physician and wife cannot help him end his life. He had wanted to avoid the slow death and the suffering that it brought to his wife. Internet chat the day the third installment aired that Kevorkian, with the media's complicity, had framed the debate simplistically. That's not the issue. Moyers told Current that he never considered having Kevorkian participate in the series.
Death is such a personal, particular, intimate experience, it's hard to make generalizations.
We wanted to show real-life situations. America Life Insurance Co. Outreach efforts began a full two years before the series' air date, said Deborah Rubenstein, director of special projects for Public Affairs Television, Moyers' production company, which works with WNET, New York. At least 73 Iowa towns and cities held events of some kind related to the series, she said, and the last two months before the September air date she worked on outreach fulltime, working with funeral home directors, libraries, churches and other organizations, using the series' elaborate leadership and discussion guides to spark project ideas. We positioned ourselves as the conduit. . . . At the same time, the team launched a web site that provided leadership and discussion guides in a downloadable format, along with brochures, letterhead, graphics and program descriptions for stations and interested outsiders to copy and use.