Ethics, Politics and Society
Politics UK Presented by Dennis Sewell.
BBC World Service copyright 2010
Many of the most bitterly contested issues that Britain's legislators have to deal with today involve a clash of ethical systems that cuts across traditional political boundaries. Arguments about the nature of the family or about assisted suicide, genetic engineering and the manipulation of human embryos all raise questions that challenge the traditional view of human life held in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. By what values should Britain's politicians be guided in what some claim is a post-Christian, or even post-religious world? Should the secular ethics and bioethics, which hold a view of human life drawn from Charles Darwin, be held in equal balance with those put forward by religious groups?
30 minute discussion between Lord Falconer (formerly Lord Chancellor), Professor Lisa Jardine of Queen Mary University of London and Professor John Haldane, University of St Andrews. To listen go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005kjbx