Assisted Lab

Assisted – The Podcast

Society EN ↓ 8 episodes

Assisted Lab is an ERC-funded research group based at University of St Gallen, Switzerland which investigates the cultural production – including films, texts, and other media – that influences the legal and political processes around assisted dying. Our transnational, comparative project engages with the multilingual spaces and cultural contexts in which end-of-life accounts are elaborated. By inviting guests with different viewpoints and backgrounds, including scholars, healthcare professionals, artists, and lawmakers, to give us insights into this complex matter in their respective language...

Author

Assisted Lab

Episodes

Peter Torres Fremlin and Joe Wood on Disability and Dimensions of Agency 16.06.2026 46:35

In this conversation, Assisted Lab’s Vanessa Rampton speaks to former Lab member and author Joe Wood about his article ‘How Different Countries Approach Assisted Dying: Autonomy, Agency, and the Slippery Slope’, published in Peter Torres Fremlin’s online platform Disability Debrief < https://www.disabilitydebrief.org/debrief/countries-approach-assisted-dying/>. The discussion touches on disa...

Claire Fourcade sur les soins palliatifs et l’aide à mourir en France 12.11.2025 29:59

En France, les soins palliatifs et l’aide à mourir sont des sujets d’actualité. La Proposition de loi visant à garantir l’égal accès de tous à l’accompagnement et aux soins palliatifs et la Proposition de loi relative au droit à l’aide à mourir ont été adoptées par l’Assemblée nationale en mai 2025. Cette dernière est actuellement en cours d’examen au Sénat. Le Dr Claire Fourcade, ancienne préside...

Marianne Brooker on the Care and Justice Contexts of Assisted Dying in the UK 17.01.2025 34:37

Having lived with a progressive form of multiple sclerosis for ten years, Marianne Brooker’s mother voluntarily stopped eating and drinking in 2019, prior to the legalization of assisted dying in the UK. Marianne's book, Intervals, about her mother’s decision and her own experience caring for her at the end, positions her demand for assisted dying options within wider issues in the ethics and poli...

Capturing the End: Outi Hakola on Dying in Documentary Film 15.01.2025 49:04

In  Filming Death  (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), film scholar Outi Hakola examines how documentary films depict palliative/hospice care and assisted dying. In conversation with Assisted Lab’s Anna Elsner, Hakola discusses the concept of a "good death", the ethical challenges of portraying dying individuals, and whether films on assisted dying are inherently activist. She also explo...

Suizidhilfe in Deutschland: Wega Wetzel über die Arbeit der DGHS und die Rolle von Erzählungen 13.01.2025 30:46

Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Humanes Sterben (DGHS) versteht sich als Bürgerrechts- und Patientenschutzorganisation. Sie hat sich erfolgreich für die gesetzliche Anerkennung der Patientenverfügung im Jahr 2009 und die Abschaffung des Verbots der Suizidhilfe im Jahr 2020 eingesetzt. Seitdem gehört auch die Vermittlung von assistierten Suiziden zu ihrem Tätigkeitsfeld. Wega Wetzel, Pressesprecherin...

Josefina Miró Quesada Gayoso on Assisted Dying in Latin America 22.11.2024 1:00:13

In recent years, assisted dying has become a topic of public debate in Latin America. Although it was decriminalized in Colombia in 1997, other Latin American countries are now beginning their own processes to legalise the practice and popularise what has been termed the right to a dignified death. Having defended and won two landmark legal cases on the question of ‘death with dignity’ in Per...

Nicola Bardola zur Entwicklung der Sterbehilfe in Deutschland und der Schweiz 18.07.2024 1:06:18

Der in München lebende Schweizer Schriftsteller Nicola Bardola hatte mit seinem 2005 publizierten Roman Schlemm , in dem er das gemeinsame Sterben seiner Eltern verarbeitet , die bundesdeutsche Debatte um Sterbehilfe befeuert. Im März 2024 ist der Roman in erweiterter Form neu erschienen unter dem Titel Der größtmögliche Beweis für Liebe . Im Gespräch mit Marc Keller von Assisted Lab spricht Nicol...

Philosophical Reasoning in an Imperfect World – Daniel Weinstock on the Ethics and Politics of MAID in Canada 29.04.2024 36:14

Medical assistance in dying (MAID) has been legal in Canada since 2016, and is a widely accepted end-of-life procedure throughout the country. Philosopher Daniel Weinstock has been an observer of, and sometimes participant in, the consolidation and evolution of the legal framework governing MAID. In this conversation with Assisted Lab’s Vanessa Rampton, he shares his insights into Canada’s traject...