#088 - Assisted Dying, Abortion Reform and Medical Ethics w/ Calum Miller & James Bogle
The Peter McCormack Show
Peter McCormack
4.7 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2025
⏱️ 135 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Calum Miller, NHS doctor and bioethics researcher, joins James Bogle, a barrister and legal expert in end-of-life cases, to discuss two of the most divisive issues in modern politics: assisted suicide and abortion.
Drawing on decades of experience in medicine and law, they reveal how Britain's latest legislation undermines the Hippocratic Oath, endangers vulnerable patients, and reflects a deeper erosion of our moral and legal foundations. We explore the NHS pressures behind these changes, disturbing real-world examples from Canada and Europe, and why public debate on life and death is being shut down.
CONTACT PETE › Website - http://petermccormack.com › Feedback - https://www.petermccormack.com/contact › Email - me@petermccormack.com › Instagram - /mccormack555 › X/Twitter - https://x.com/petermccormack/
CONNECT WITH CALUM MILLER › X/Twitter - https://x.com/drcalummiller › Website - https://calumsblog.com
CONNECT WITH JAMES BOGLE › X/Twitter - https://x.com/10KBW › Website - https://10kbw.co.uk/barrister/james-bogle/
SPONSORS › IREN - https://www.iren.com/ › Ledger - https://www.ledger.com/ › Gemini - https://gemini.com/ › Casa - https://casa.io/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TIMESTAMPS (0:00) – Introduction (2:40) – Should we legalise assisted dying? (5:00) – The NHS pressure to free up beds (7:58) – Parliamentary vote breakdown (12:29) – Hippocratic Oath undermined (15:00) – Political cowardice and free votes (21:29) – How rushed was this bill? (27:07) – Misdiagnosis (33:02) – 90% of palliative care doctors are against it (37:24) – Prognosis is not an exact science (40:08) – Are we turning doctors into executioners? (50:00) – The role of coroners erased (58:53) – Can the NHS workload handle this? (1:01:08) – The Rubicon and the slippery slope (1:10:00) – Equality law driving suicide access (1:18:18) – The right to try experimental treatment (1:33:43) – Morphine and midazolam abuse (1:41:50) – Lord Sumption's warning on social pressure (1:45:00) – Government apathy and moral weakness (1:48:49) – Abortion law change: what really happened? (1:51:56) – 39-week abortion to hide affair (2:00:17) – Society creating the problem it now punishes (2:06:36) – Consequences of not protecting life (2:10:34) – Final thoughts: time to reopen the abortion debate?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST › Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K › Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu › Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM › YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM › Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePM
FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/ https://x.com/curttayloruk/
EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Can you imagine that? |
| 0:01.0 | If you've been told you've got cancer, you're going to die, you're at the weakest point |
| 0:04.5 | in your life psychologically. |
| 0:07.3 | And at that point, a doctor who is permitted to say, oh, but we can give you a poison |
| 0:12.3 | to help you commit suicide. |
| 0:13.9 | If you're ever going to say yes, it's likely to be the absolute weakest and lowest ebb. |
| 0:20.3 | And if you've been told you're going to die, |
| 0:22.0 | you might just say yes. So how do you make a safeguard against that? |
| 0:33.7 | All right. Morning, Callum. James. Thank you both for coming in. |
| 0:38.9 | There's a couple of big topics to discuss that have been in the press a lot recently. |
| 0:44.3 | So we're going to focus on a sister Dine and then we may, |
| 0:48.3 | if we have the time, |
| 0:49.0 | talk about the reforms to abortion laws recently. |
| 0:52.9 | I think these are quite emotive subjects. And you both together on this was a good idea. |
| 0:59.0 | But I think just because of what we're discussing, it's probably best that we allow people to know who you both are so they understand. |
| 1:06.0 | So, Callum, can you just tell people who are what you're doing? |
| 1:09.0 | Sure. |
| 1:10.0 | Yeah, so I'm a medical doctor by background. |
| 1:12.0 | I still practice a little bit in the NHS in hospital. |
| 1:15.1 | I'm a researcher, so I do a lot of work on bioethics and public policy relating to issues |
| 1:20.4 | about bioethics and family and population issues. |
| 1:24.1 | And then I do a lot of public speaking, a lot of advocacy work and policy work on |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Peter McCormack, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Peter McCormack and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.