News

Lecture explores argument of changing the law on assisted dying

(16 October 2012)

St John's College

The question of why the law needs to be changed on the sensitive issue of assisted dying will be the subject of a public lecture this week (Thursday, October 18).

Professor Raymond Tallis will deliver the St John’s Borderlands Annual Lecture at The Ken Wade Lecture Theatre, Calman Learning Centre, Durham University Science Site, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE on Thursday, October 18, 2012, at 5.30pm.

Professor Tallis, a former professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester and a Consultant Physician in the Health Care of the Elderly, will make the clinical, legal, and ethical case for legalising assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults, who are suffering intolerably and who have expressed a sustained wish to die.

Professor Tallis has also advised the Government on the health care of older people and in particular on the development of stroke services and is a frequent broadcaster.

The Borderlands Annual Lecture is organised by Durham’s St John’s College.

Reverend Professor David Wilkinson, Principal of St John’s College, said: “Assisted dying is an extremely emotive issue which naturally invokes strong feelings from those both in favour and against helping people to die.

“Professor Tallis’s lecture will provide another perspective on this complex and sensitive issue.”

For more information contact Dr Mark Ogden on telephone 0191 334 3892 or email mark.ogden@durham.ac.uk