Assisted Dying: What might the final moments be like?

Inside Health

BBC

Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 575 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We continue our exploration of some of the issues that could crop up if assisted dying becomes law under The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill that is currently working its way through Parliament.

Today we consider what those final moments might be like and if the ideal of a peaceful death is a reality with the drug options currently available.

To discuss we're joined by:

Katherine Sleeman - Professor of Palliative Care at King's College London David Nicholl - Consultant Neurologist at University Hospital Birmingham Mark Taubert - Consultant Palliative Medicine at NHS Wales Erica Borgstrom - Professor of Medical Anthropology at The Open University

It's claimed that within each of us there is a credit card's worth of microplastics. We dig into the figures underlying that with Kit Yates, Professor of Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath.

And, we answer your questions after our programme on hearing loss with audiologist Dr Hannah Cooper, Kevin Munro, Professor of Audiology at the University of Manchester and Nish Mehta, an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon at Royal National ENT Hospital.

Presenter: James Gallagher Producers: Hannah Robins and Tom Bonnett Editor: Holly Squire

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast,
0:05.4	The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's
0:10.6	Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials
0:16.2	from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Sh Ranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased,
0:21.9	it's really all about the traitors uncloked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts,
0:27.4	listen only on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Welcome to the Inside Health
0:35.3	podcast with me, James Gallagher. episodes are released weekly
0:38.6	wherever you get your podcasts. But if you live in the UK, you can listen to the latest
0:43.3	episodes a whole week earlier than anywhere else, first on BBC Sounds. Hello there, later,
0:49.5	we're going to find out whether we're all eating a credit card's worth of microplastic every week, and we're
0:55.4	answering your questions on hearing loss. But first, it's part three of our discussion on
1:00.6	assisted dying. Using drugs to end a life raises a lot of issues, and here on Inside Health,
1:06.7	we've been looking at it from a medical perspective. So if you go back through BBC Sounds,
1:11.4	we've looked at ensuring an assist the death is what the patient wants, as well as seeing
1:16.2	who could potentially be eligible under the terminally ill adult's end-of-life bill, which is being
1:21.4	considered in Parliament. Now that would apply to England and Wales, but there are similar
1:25.9	discussions taking place in Scotland, the Isle of Man and Jersey too.
1:30.2	So today, we're going to consider the assisted death itself. How would it happen and what might those final moments be like?
1:38.5	We have the same panel of experts as last time, so let's meet them.
1:42.0	My name's Catherine Sleeman. I'm Professor of Palliative Care at King's
1:44.7	College London. I have no in-principle objection to assisted dying, but I have concerns about
1:49.9	the practical implementation, in particular the risks to vulnerable people. My name's David Nicol.
	...

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