Legalize Assisted Suicide?

Open to Debate

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4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

In December of 2025, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced that after months of negotiations with the state legislature, she was finally ready to sign into law a new bill allowing some patients to request medical assistance in dying, or MAID. That bill is currently sitting on her desk waiting for her signature. This type of bill has become more and more common. In 1994, Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act, becoming the first state to allows physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Now 12 states plus the District of Columbia have laws on the books allowing physicians to assist patients in ending their life, within limits. Patients must have a prognosis of less than six months to live, and they must take the medication themselves. As more and more states discuss passing their own versions of these bills, we revisit the debate we had on this very topic in 2014. The motion that we debated: Legalize assisted suicide. While the preferred language has changed to Medical Aid in Dying, the thorny ethical questions and the complicated medical judgments remain unchanged. 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? This debate was recorded live in November of 2014 at the Kaufman Music Center in New York. Arguing Yes: Peter Singer: Co-Founder of the Effective Altruism movement. Professor of Bioethics, Emeritus, Princeton University. Podcast host, "Lives Well Lived" Andrew Solomon: Author of “Far From the Tree”, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medical College. He also researches at Yale School of Medicine. Currently writing a book about suicide. Arguing No: Ilora Finlay, The Baroness Finlay of Llandaff: Former President of the British Medical Association, Member of the House of Lords. Daniel Sulmasy: André Hellgers Professor of Biomedical Ethics in the Departments of Medicine and Philosophy and Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. A few links to articles on the topic: New York to become latest state to allow aid in dying. What is it? ,USA Today Do Patients Without a Terminal Illness Have the Right to Die? New York Times The country gave its citizens the right to die. Doctors are struggling to keep up with demand. The Atlantic Magazine Join the conversation on ⁠Substack⁠—share your perspective on this episode and subscribe to our weekly newsletter for curated insights from our debaters, moderators, and staff. Follow us on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, and ⁠TikTok⁠ to stay connected with our mission and ongoing debates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Open to Debate. I'm John Donvan. In December of last year, the governor of New York State
0:05.6	Kathy Hokel gave a speech marking what was by all accounts a long-drawn-out legislative debate coming to attend.
0:12.0	It's one of the most personal and emotional debates unfolding at the New York State Capitol,
0:16.8	the Medical Aid in Dying Act. Hokel was announcing that after months of negotiations with the state legislature,
0:23.4	she was finally ready to sign into law a new bill that would allow some patients to request
0:28.6	medical assistance in dying, or MAID.
0:32.3	But this is one of the toughest decisions I've ever made as governor.
0:34.7	This type of bill has become more and more common across the U.S. 10 states
0:38.5	plus the District of Columbia already have laws that allow physicians to assist patients in ending their
0:44.0	life, but within limits. Patients must have a prognosis of less than six months to live,
0:49.4	and they must take the medication themselves. But while MAID, or made, is becoming more common, it remains controversial.
0:56.4	So today, as New York waits for the governor's signature to make legalization official in the state,
1:00.9	and as more and more states discuss passing their own versions of this kind of bill,
1:05.2	we're going to revisit the debate we had on this very topic back in 2014. The motion at the time,
1:10.7	using the language of the time,
1:12.1	legalize assisted suicide. This episode is a staff favorite. And although medical aid and dying
1:17.6	is now the preferred term, all of the thorny ethical questions, the complicated medical questions,
1:22.9	remain unchanged. Held live at the Kauffman Music Center in New York, the conversation is at times personal
1:28.2	and emotional, which only adds to the power. All right, let's meet our debaters.
1:33.0	Please, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome Peter Singer.
1:39.0	And Peter, you are a professor of bioethics at Princeton. You've written some classic books, animal liberation, practical ethics. You are often described as, and wait for this, the world's most influential living philosopher. You subscribe to a theory of ethics called utilitarianism. If you could explain that in one sentence, what would it be?
2:01.5	Sure, in one sentence, utilitarianism is the view that the right thing to do is the act that
	...

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