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Beyond Belief

Religion & Ethics

Series exploring the place and nature of faith in today's world

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Beyond Belief: Cryonics and immortality

12/12/2016

Cryonics and immortality

BBC Radio 4 - Beyond Belief, Cryonics and immortality

From Gilgamesh to Cryonics - Ernie Rea and guests discuss the quest for immortality.

The recent case of a terminally ill 14 year old who won the right to have her body cryonically frozen after death in the hope that science would eventually find a way of restoring her to healthy life raises all kinds of ethical questions about the sustainability of prolonging life indefinitely.But it also highlights age-old philosophical and religious preoccupations with what comes after death and the human desire to live forever. 

Ernie Rea discusses the quest for Immortality with Natalie Haynes, a Classicist writer and broadcaster; Douglas Davies, Professor in the Study of Religion at the University of Durham, and David Voas, Professor of Social Science at University College, London.

Producer: Rosie Dawson.

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