Afleveringen
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California is one of ten US states where assisted dying is lawful and in some respects it’s a model for how the practice might work in Britain.
Introduced in 2016, it’s available to those who are terminally ill and are expected to die within six months. Patients must self administer the lethal medication - the same as what’s proposed in England and Wales.
BBC Medical editor Fergus Walsh travels to San Diego to meet 80 year old Wayne who’s planning to end his life. He’s terminally ill with heart failure and in excruciating pain from a severely damaged spine.
“I just don't see any merit to dying slow and painfully and hooked up with intubation and feeding tubes. I want none of it,” he said.
The programme hears from doctors and patients on both sides of the argument. Opponents warn assisted dying is putting the vulnerable at risk such as people with disabilities or mental illness.
Michelle Carter is 72 and has advanced cancer. She believes people should have a choice but has completely ruled out having an assisted death
“Suicide dying is not for me..I choose palliative care. I have God and I have good medicine,” she said.
There are important differences between the law in California and what is proposed here. Patients can get access to lethal medication in 48 hours in California. If assisted dying is legalised in England and Wales, it will take about a month for terminally ill patients to be approved.
Across California, around 1 in every 300 deaths is now medically aided.
But in Canada assisted dying accounts for around 1 in 20 deaths - that’s 15 times the rate in California - and one of the highest in the world.
The law was introduced in 2016 - the same as California - and is open to those with an incurable medical condition which causes intolerable suffering. Initially it was just for the terminally ill, but that requirement has been dropped.
In Canada, nearly all medically assisted deaths are carried out by doctors who inject the lethal dose. Fergus meets one doctor who has helped hundreds of people to die. She says she sees it as a “ sacred duty.”
But another tells him that Canada has “fallen off a cliff” when it comes to assisted dying and that it is being used as an alternative to social or medical support.
Finally Fergus returns to California to witness Wayne end his life surrounded by his wife and children.
“I’m all in. I’ve never had any question about it,” Wayne tells him
Reporter: Fergus WalshProducers: Paul Grant and Camilla HorroxTechnical Producer: David CracklesProduction Management Assistant: Katie Morrison Editor: Clare Fordham
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Thousands of female council workers across Britain have lost out on pay and benefits worth billions because of unequal pay over decades. Now claims for compensation and demands to reform pay and grading threaten to capsize council finances, upset male council workers and cause massive cuts to local services.Anushka Asthana investigates why such pay discrimination is still happening despite being illegal for the last fifty years. And she discovers what the price of equality might actually be, for the women seeking it and the millions of us living in places where our local council has ignored the problem for years.Presenter: Anushka AsthanaProducers: Jonathan Brunert and Leela Padmanabhan
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Ash Bhardwaj finds out why the British Army is shrinking at a crucial juncture for the future of UK defence.
He speaks to new recruits to understand what drove them to a career in the army – and visits secondary schools across the country to ask whether it’s really true that young people don't want to fight for their country.
We hear from insiders who’ve been at coalface of recruitment over the last ten years, who tell us where we’ve been going wrong, and how we might start to get it right.
Presented by Ash BhardwajProduced by Artemis IrvineA Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
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Reactive features from Radio 4, exploring what's really happening behind the headlines and unearthing untold stories, both at home and abroad.
