Assisted Dying: Has Its Time Come?

Battle of Ideas audio archive

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ASSISTED DYING HAS ITS TIME COME? https://archives.battleofideas.org.uk/2021/session/assisted-dying-has-its-time-come/ Throughout the pandemic, questions of life and death have been unusually visible. From lockdowns to rapid vaccine development, huge resources and massive effort have been expended to save lives. Perhaps, then, it is an unusual moment for the UK to be considering legalising assisted dying. Or has the pandemic reinforced questions of what constitutes a good life – and a good death? A bill proposed by Baroness Meacher, a former social worker, in the House of Lords, would give terminally ill and mentally competent adults in the final six months of their lives the option to die at a time and place of their choosing, with all requests subject to approval from two independent doctors and a High Court judge. The legislation is due to be debated in the Lords in October, with votes expected to take place next year. It is widely believed to have enough votes to pass in the upper chamber. Baroness Meacher stressed that the bill would help those who are ‘suffering unbearably’. The UK would be joining a clutch of US and Australian states, Canada, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain and New Zealand in allowing assisted death. Many see this as the ‘ultimate civil right’. Others maintain that the focus, especially for medical professionals, should always be to preserve life, which is sacred. There are also wider questions about the value of life. In the UK, widespread outrage greeted reports that many care homes and doctors had encouraged the adoption of so-called ‘do not resuscitate’ orders, which would have encouraged medics to avoid attempting to revive critically ill patients. If many older people were pressurised to sign up to such orders, as critics claimed, would some also sign up to assisted deaths to similarly avoid putting pressure on the NHS or relatives? After previous efforts failed, will this year be the year the UK grants a ‘right to die’? What are the moral issues at stake? What, politically, does a right to die mean in a society seemingly obsessed with good health? Should people be given the choice, and assistance, to end their lives, or is it a threshold which must not be crossed? Speakers David Pearce director of fundraising and marketing, Dignity in Dying Dr Richard Scheffer retired consultant in palliative medicine; former hospice medical director; former board member, Dignity in Dying and Compassion in Dying Professor Katherine Sleeman Laing Galazka chair in palliative care, King's College London; honorary consultant in palliative medicine, King's College Hospital NHS Trust Dr Kevin Yuill associate professor of history, University of Sunderland; author, Assisted Suicide: the liberal, humanist case against legalization and The Second Amendment and Gun Control: freedom, fear, and the American constitution Chair Joel Cohen associate fellow, Academy of Ideas