91Èȱ¬

At the end of this month, MP’s will debate and vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Kim Leadbeater, the Labour member behind the proposal, says that the current ‘status quo is not fit for purpose’ as it leads to people ‘having very harrowing, very distressing deaths – both for themselves and for their family.’

But, is the legalising of assisted dying the best answer to this dilemma? Would there be adequate safeguards? And when traditional Christian teaching has always affirmed that human life is sacred, how much of the argument is still swayed by religious faith?

In the studio to discuss these issues are Dr Idris Baker, a palliative medicine consultant in Swansea and a Church elder; Kathy Riddick – Wales coordinator for Humanists UK; and Rev Simon Walkling – a United Reformed Church minister and former hospice chaplain.