Louis Theroux’s new documentaries will cover assisted suicide, polygamy and more

Altered States is due to air in November

Louis Theroux returns next month with three new films. And finally, it has been announced what they are about. The three film series, called Altered States, will explore "the unusual ways modern America deals with birth, love and death,” and the changing laws that have transformed how the population experiences them. We now know that the films will be about polygamy, the adoption industry and assisted suicide. The first film is called “Love Without Limits” and will focus of polygamy, and ethical non-monogamy – “the practice of openly and transparently having multiple relationships that go further than just sex”. Louis embeds himself with families living a polygamous lifestyle, discovering that “for many, more partners means more love and more happiness, but for others, multiple relationships have led to jealousy, upset and broken hearts”. The next film is “Take My Baby”, on the subject of the multi-million dollar industry around adoption. Theroux spends time with both “birth mothers preparing to hand over their own flesh and blood,” uncovering stories of the poverty, addiction and abuse that led to their situations. He also meets “the adoptive families paying out huge amounts of money in the hope of being able to raise a child they can’t have by natural means”. Finally, there is “Choosing Death,” where Louis heads to California, one of the “six states that now offer the terminally ill the option of ending their lives with a prescribed cocktail of drugs”. He is invited “into the family homes of those who want to end their own lives,” but discovers that “choosing the right time [to die] is not such a simple decision”. He also meets “a group who provide information about how to die to those who don’t fit the criteria”. Louis Theroux’s Altered States is due to air in November on BBC 2.