Moral Maze: Assisted Dying
BBC Radio 4 (July 16, 2014)
The Moral Maze programme on BBC radio is a long-running show dedicated to debating and understanding complicated issues.
Yesterday’s guests heatedly discussed assisted dying, suicide, euthanasia, human autonomy, the sanctitity of life, the list goes on and on.
Well worth gving a listen before Friday’s debate in the House of Lords on the assisted dying bill for England and Wales.
Here the programme’s description:
The issue of assisted dying is the moral discussion of our age and the latest effort to get it legalised comes before the House of Lords this week. The debate has been given new energy by the intervention of two former Anglican archbishops, Desmond Tutu and George Carey, who’ve now come out in support of the right of terminally ill people to end their lives – flying the face of the teaching of their church. There are a plethora of moral principles at stake and at the heart of them, which all sides acknowledge, the terrible suffering that some people go through at the end of their lives. What are the moral, ethical, philosophical and religious principles at stake in this debate? What happens when two moral principles collide and both sides could be right? What moral calculus can you apply to decide how to choose between right and wrong?
Featured speakers include Dr. Iain Brassington, Dr. Kevin Yuill, Professor Raymond Tallis and Professor Margaret Somerville.