Digital media entrepreneur Alki David has revealed through a video posted on YouTube that his stream of the physician assisted suicide of a terminally ill Russian man with brain cancer was a hoax. The British billionaire reportedly publicized the faked event to promote his reality TV website BattleCam, which streams live incidents.

David didn’t post the YouTube video until after the assisted suicide was watched by over 165,000 people on July 29, 2011 on BattleCam. He stated in the YouTube video that Nikolai Ivanisovich, the supposed dying man, was actually his yacht captain. The woman who was supposed to be Ivanisovich’s family member was actually David’s housekeeper.

David, who showed the faked assisted suicide during the YouTube video, garnered negative attention when he announced he would be streaming the event. In his own defense, he said “projecting the moral questions that will arise from this event, I would like to add that I find nothing wrong with this at all.” He added that besides being legal in Oregon, Montana and Washington states, physician assisted suicide is also legal in such countries as Switzerland and Belgium. He also said that these countries “recognize each individual’s right to end their life, free of terminal pain.”

Written by: Karen Benardello

Alki David and Nikolai Ivanisovich