Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates Assisted Suicide At NYC's Kaufman Center, November 13th

Assisted suicide is currently legal in five states - Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, and New Mexico - but public opinion remains fiercelydivided. Just earlier this month, Brittany Maynard, a 29-year old with terminal brain cancer, made national headlines announcing a plan to end her own life, choosing "death with dignity" instead of waiting for the disease to take her.

But is assisted suicide, in the words of the American Medical Association's code of ethics, "fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer"? 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?

On November 13, award-winning debate series Intelligence Squared U.S. (IQ2US) will host a debate on the motion "Legalize Assisted Suicide."Four authorities will debate whether humans have a right to die with dignity or whether assisted suicide devalues human life. Two debaters in fact have personal experience with a mother wishing to end her own life - but one came out of the experience an advocate for assisted suicide, and one came out an opponent.

Arguing for the motion:
* Peter Singer
Singer is a philosopher and author, best known for his work in ethics, and often described as the world's most influential living philosopher. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, a position that he now combines with the part-time position of Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. His books include Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, One World, The Life You Can Save and The Point of View of the Universe. In 2014 the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute ranked him third on its list of Global Thought Leaders, and Time has ranked him among the world's 100 most influential people.
* Andrew Solomon
Solomon is a writer, lecturer, and a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University. Solomon's newest book, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (2012), won the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction and was chosen as one of the New York Times "Ten Best Books" of 2012. Solomon's previous book, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (2001) won the National Book Award for nonfiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Solomon has been an outspoken advocate for "death with dignity" ever since his family chose to support his terminally ill mother's wish to commit suicide.

Arguing against the motion:
* Baroness Ilora Finlay
Baroness Ilora Finlay, a leading palliative care physician, is president of the British Medical Association (2014-15), president of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and is a past president of the Royal Society of Medicine. She has led Palliative Care Strategy Implementation in Wales since 2008, and chaired the Welsh Medical and Dental Academic Advisory Board since 2012. Finlay started the Marie Curie Hospice in Wales and since 2008 has responsibility on behalf of Welsh Government for strategic oversight of all hospice and palliative care services in Wales. Since 2001, Finlay has been an Independent Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Finlay also has personal experience with assisted suicide, when her ill mother wished to take her own life. Finlay talked her out of it, and her mother ended up thanking her for the additional four years of life that decision gave her.
* Dr. Daniel Sulmasy
Dr. Daniel Sulmasy is the Kilbride-Clinton Professor of Medicine and Ethics in the Department of Medicine and Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where he serves as Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and as Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion. Sulmasy was appointed to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues by President Obama in 2010. His research interests encompass both theoretical and empirical investigations of the ethics of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education, and spirituality in medicine. He is the author or editor of six books, including Safe Passage: A Global Spiritual Sourcebook for Care at the End of Life (2014). He also serves as editor-in-chief of the journal, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.

The debate will also stream live online, then air soon after as part of the syndicated NPR show "Intelligence Squared U.S." On November 13, online viewers can tune in here (http://bit.ly/1w2ufWi) or via IQ2's new app (http://shorefi.re/VTwKwx)

WHAT: Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates "Legalize Assisted Suicide"
WHEN: Thursday, November 13, 2014 / Reception 5:45-6:30 / Debate 6:45-8:30 PM
WHERE: Kaufman Center/129 W. 67th Street (bet. Broadway and Amsterdam)/New York, NY 10023
TICKETS: $40 ($12 for students w/ ID). To purchase, visit http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/

ABOUT INTELLIGENCE SQUARED U.S. DEBATES (IQ2US)
A non-partisan, nonprofit organization, Intelligence Squared U.S. was founded in 2006 to restore civility, reasoned analysis and constructive public discourse to today's often biased media landscape. IQ2US reaches millions through multi-platform distribution, including radio, television, live streaming, podcasts and interactive digital content. It is one of the top 25 most popular podcasts on iTunes, and has won the 2014 Clarion Award for Radio Regular Feature Program and back-to-back 2013-2014 New York Festivals International Radio Awards for Best Public Affairs Program. The debates have attracted some of the world's top thinkers, including Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Forbes, Dr. Neal Barnard, Arianna Huffington, Paul Krugman, and Karl Rove. With close to 100 debates, Intelligence Squared U.S. has encouraged the public to "think twice" on a wide range of provocative topics. Author and ABC News correspondent John Donvan has moderated IQ2US since 2008. The executive producer is Dana Wolfe.