麻豆约拍

As the House of Lords prepares to debate a change in the law, Roy Jenkins explores the implications of helping terminally ill people to end their own lives with lethal drugs.

This is already legal in a number of states such as Canada and Oregon, and others such as New Zealand and Austria are soon set to join them. Supporters of assisted dying claim the tide of public opinion in England and Wales is now firmly in their favour, even among regular churchgoers and other religious people. Even the British Medical Association has declared neutrality, effectively withdrawing its opposition to assisted dying.

For their part, opponents claim the opinion polls are skewed, and over-emotive. For many believers, helping to take a life is deeply problematic. And besides this the public (they argue) have very little idea of what exactly they would be voting for.

Roy's guests include Rabbi Jonathan Romain, vice-chair of Dignity in Dying, and one of a small number of senior religious figures in favour of changing the law; Baroness Ilora Finlay of Llandaff, prominent in the field of palliative medicine; Dr Mark Pickering, a GP and Chief Executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship; and humanist celebrant Lorraine Barrett, a former nurse who has served as patron of a hospice.