Zoë Coyle and George Carey Chaired by Nick Higham

Debut novelist Zoë Coyle and former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord George Carey discuss the theme of assisted dying at the heart of Coyle’s Where the Light Gets In.

The story is of wild child Delphi Hoffman who is finally getting her life together when she receives a phone call from her terminally ill mother in Tasmania asking her to fly back from the UK and help her to die. The novel explores the connection between mothers and daughters and themes of love and loss, grief and rebuilding.

Coyle uses her 20 years’ experience in film and theatre for her work in corporate and communication training. Her novel was inspired by her upset 20 years ago when her own terminally ill mother decided to euthanise herself because she had no access to assisted dying.

Carey, who was Archbishop of Canterbury between 1991 and 2002, is a supporter of assisted dying. In an essay for the British Medical Journal written jointly with Rabbi Jonathan Romain, he argued that there was ‘nothing holy about agony’. The pair are part of a new alliance of faith leaders arguing that nothing in scripture prohibits assisting a death to end suffering. They point to a 2019 poll that found 84% of the British public and 80% of religious people supported assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults.

Discussions are chaired by journalist Nick Higham, who was the BBC’s first ever media correspondent and is a former presenter of Meet the Author on the BBC news channel.