Should euthanasia be legalised? Live debate on assisted suicide in London, September 2010

Assisted suicide should be legalised: the terminally ill should have the legal right to be helped to end their lives

19 Oct 2010

Speakers: Sue Lawley, Alex Carlile QC, Richard Harries, Emily Jackson, Debbie Purdy, Mary Warnock, Patrick Stone

Why Now?

Voluntary euthanasia, or physician-assisted suicide is legal in the US state of Oregon, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and more than 90 British citizens have taken advantage of Swiss laws that allow them to die with help from doctors and nurses at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich. But in Britain, the 1961 Suicide Act states that while suicide is not illegal, "a person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the suicide of another, or an attempt by another to commit suicide, shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years".

Debbie Purdy, a woman from Bradford who suffers from multiple sclerosis, has led a high-profile campaign to change the law. She took on the Director of Public Prosecutions in the High Courts, seeking clarification that her husband wouldn't be prosecuted if he helped her to travel to Dignitas. But despite her best efforts, the realities of ever-ageing politicians and public support, so far politicians have been squeamish about changing the law.

Many of our audience were swayed into changing their mind over the course of this debate. Will you be?

Event information:

This debate took place at the Royal Geographical Society on the evening of October 19th 2010.

Video is available above, or you can listen to full audio coverage of the debate on the player below, or on the IQ² podcast.

An accompanying written debate is also available.

You can continue the debate on Twitter and Facebook.

Event information:

The law allows me to kill myself, but what if I have a progressive illness and reach a stage when I long to end my life but cannot do so unaided. Isn't it needlessly cruel and illogical that as the law stands, no friend or family member or doctor can then help me die without risking prosecution and a possible jail sentence? No it isn't, say those who oppose legalising assisted suicide. Think of the pressures that would build once it became a legally sanctioned option – not least the pressure to extend the category of those whom it is permissible to help kill beyond the terminally ill to the old, the frail and even the mildly depressed. Think of the internal and external pressure on elderly relatives to seek assistance for an early exit so as to avoid being a burden and using up the family inheritance; or the pressure on the NHS to create more bed space.

Would it not be better, say opponents of legalisation, to retain the kind of fudge we’ve got at the moment, allowing the Director of Public Prosecutions to give a nod and a wink to assisted suicide unless he suspects foul play? Or is that just a recipe for the very uncertainty – and attendant misery – that gives rise to such passionate calls for a change in the law in the first place?

Speakers for the motion

Emily Jackson

Professor of Law at LSE
Debbie Purdy

Campaigner who has multiple sclerosis and has sought to have the UK law on assisted suicide clarified
Mary Warnock

Moral philosopher, life peer and former Member of House of Lords Select Committee on Euthanasia

Chair

Sue Lawley

Journalist and broadcaster

Speakers against the motion

Alex Carlile QC

Barrister, Liberal Democrat peer and joint chair of Living and Dying Well
Richard Harries

Gresham Professor of Divinity, whose latest book is Questions of Life and Death: Christian Faith and Medical Intervention
Patrick Stone

Macmillan Reader in Palliative Medicine, St George’s University of London