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Podcast: Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates
Episode:

Legalize Assisted Suicide
Category: News & Politics
Duration: 00:53:15
Publish Date: 2026-01-30 10:00:00
Description:

In 1994, Oregon voters passed the Death with Dignity Act, which legalized physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Since then, it has become legal in 4 more states, including New Mexico, where the state court ruling that it is constitutional is under appeal. Is it, in the words of the American Medical Association's code of ethics, "fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer"? Will these laws lead to a slippery slope, where the vulnerable are pressured to choose death and human life is devalued? Or do we need to recognize everyone's basic right to autonomy, the right to end pain and suffering, and the right to choose to die with dignity?


ARGUING YES:

Peter Singer: Co-Founder of the Effective Altruism movement; Author of “The Most Good You Can Do"

Andrew Solomon: Author of “Far From the Tree”, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University


ARGUING NO:

Baroness Ilora Finlay: President of the British Medical Association, Member of the House of Lords

Daniel Sulmasy: Prof. of Medicine and Ethics at University of Chicago, Member of the Presidential Bioethics Commission


Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates 


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