A new series of programmes in which dominating issues of our time are discussed by prominent figures in academic life with members of British Universities

Robin Day introduces a discussion between Dr. Henry Miller, F.R.C.P., Vice-chancellor, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and Geoffrey Spencer, M.B., B.S., F.F.A.R.C.S., Head of the Intensive Therapy Unit, St. Thomas Hospital,
and a specially invited audience of members of teaching hospitals of London University

A whole new range of medical techniques is emerging, making it increasingly possible to prolong human life. But when is it justifiable and desirable to use these methods? What should be the social and economic priorities? Who should apply them? The techniques present society with a series of ethical problems.
Dr. Miller, as Director of the B.M.A.'s Planning Unit, has recently produced a widely publicised report on the place of organ transplantation in the future. Dr. Spencer, as head of the largest intensive care unit in Britain, is concerned with how society should deploy the enormous resources that these modern forms of therapy can consume.