Several months ago, the BBC’s Moral Maze programme revisited the topic of “assisted dying.” The topic arose amid the House of Lord’s consideration of legislation that would legalise assisted suicide.

Here is a desciption of the podcast from the BBC website.

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? Moral Maze – Presented by Michael Buerk

Witnesses are Dr. Iain Brassington, Dr. Kevin Yuill, Professor Raymond Tallis and Professor Margaret Somerville.

Here is a link to a past SLACE post on a past  Moral Debate about assisted suicide.