Nearly a decade since MPs in Westminster voted against allowing terminally ill people to end their own life, assisted dying is climbing back up the political agenda. The Health and Social Care Committee is due to publish the first report of its kind on the subject after a year-long inquiry. Meanwhile, the Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has said there are "grounds for changing the law”, UK medical bodies continue to drop their opposition to the idea, and polls suggest around two-thirds of the public are in favour. Assisted dying raises profound moral questions which shake the core of our humanity. What does it mean to live – and to die – well? Is it more dignified to live with suffering or to die without it? If life is a sacred gift, and a marker of our equal dignity, should we, or anyone else, be able to control when it ends? If death is the most dignified response to suffering, how much suffering is too much, and who should decide?
Those who describe constant physical pain and a loss of bodily autonomy say that isn’t living at all. Should we be guided principally by compassion in these situations? Or does the good intention of irradicating suffering risk a chilling effect in which people are pressured into re-appraising whether their lives are worth living?
Is it time to allow assisted dying?
Panel: Mona Siddiqui, Inaya Folarin Iman, Matthew Taylor, Giles Fraser
Witnesses: Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Professor Kevin Yuill, Zoe Hyatt Marley, Dr Miro Griffiths
Producer: Dan Tierney.
The morality of news coverage
Should science ever be stopped?
The Morality of Borders
Football: a moral force for good?
How should we understand ‘cancel culture’?
How should we talk about suicide?
AI - the end of humanity or the next evolutionary step?
Is Growth a False God?
Is pacifism admirable, immoral, or just impractical?
Breach of Trust
Leaders with faith
How should Britain make amends for its colonial past?
Why does God allow natural disasters to happen?
Morality and Money
What is Evil?
Human Maturity
Personal Debt
The Ethics of the Family
Kindness
What do we work for?
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Hello Heaven Podcast
Global News Podcast
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
The Infinite Monkey Cage
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins