What (if anything) makes a good euthanasia law?
Monday 16 March and Tuesday 17 March 2026, 9am - 5pm
Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
Register via Eventbrite.
A collaboration between TORCH Medical Humanities and Uehiro Oxford Institute
Whilst the UK’s House of Lords is busy scrutinising the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, in Mexico there are at least three different legislative proposals seeking to legalise euthanasia at the federal level. Against this backdrop, this two-day workshop brings together Mexican and UK scholars and practitioners to pursue two closely connected aims: first, to examine the ethical and legal questions raised by the proposed euthanasia frameworks in the UK and Mexico, paying attention to their similarities, divergences, broader implications, and what they might learn from each other. Second, to move beyond immediate legislative debates in order to ask a more fundamental question—what, if anything, makes for good euthanasia legislation.
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Day 1 (16th March) |
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9:00-9:20 |
Tea/Coffee |
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9:20-9:30 |
Welcome César Palacios-González (Uehiro Oxford Institute) & Alberto Giubilini (Uehiro Oxford Institute – Medical Humanities) |
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9:30-10:00 |
The Mexican Legal System María Rebeca Alcaide Cruz (Mexican Senate) – Remote presentation |
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10:00-11:20 |
Rethinking Death as a Human Right: The Mexican Case of Medically Assisted Death and Ley Trasciende Samara Martínez Montaño (Universidad La Salle) |
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11:20-11:50 |
Coffee Break |
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11:50-13:00 |
The Role of Conscientious Objection in Euthanasia Legislation Alberto Giubilini (Uehiro Oxford Institute) |
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13:00-14:00 |
Lunch Break |
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14.00-15.20 |
Euthanasia Legislation and the Equality of Disabled People Heloise Robinson (Faculty of Law, Oxford) |
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15.20-15.50 |
Coffee Break |
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15.50-16.50 |
How (not) to compare AD practice and proposals between countries Prof Dominic Wilkinson (Uehiro Oxford Institute) |
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Day 2 (17th March) |
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10:00-11:20 |
Is assisted dying a treatment – the comparative perspective and the implications Gareth Owen & Alexander Ruck Keene (King’s College London) |
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11:20-11:50 |
Coffee Break |
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11:50-13:00 |
The right to be protected from suicide Jonathan Herring (Faculty of Law, Oxford) |
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13:00-14:00 |
Lunch Break |
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14.00-15.20 |
Assisted dying, disability and voluntariness under social injustice Esther Braun (Potsdam University) – Remote presentation |
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15.20-15.50 |
Coffee Break |
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15.50-16.50 |
The Most Popular Kind of Argument for Legalising Assisted Dying and why it Doesn’t Work Iain Brassington (Manchester University) |
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16:50-17:00 |
Concluding Remarks |
