wildly curious
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
RadioWest Films presents unique stories with a focus on Utah. Each week, we’ll present a short documentary drawing from a variety of styles: story driven, conceptual, profiles and more. It’s a place for film lovers to watch innovative storytelling and to meet Utah’s most talented filmmakers.And there are some films that we just want to keep talking about. Here's a collection of radio conversations paired with our short films. Think of it this way ... stories you hear, stories you see.

The History and Ethics of Suicide

The Death of Socrates, Jacques-Louis David, Public Domain

Questions surrounding suicide have been with us for at least as long as we’ve had written record, and the answers are as varied as the times and places where they were discussed. Wednesday, Doug sits down with philosophy scholar Margaret Battin. She’s spent her career collecting the works of religious and secular thinkers regarding suicide. It has been considered noble, immoral, heroic and cowardly, and we’ll talk about what all of those views teach us about end-of-life issues today.

Margaret Battin is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and an Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah. Her books include Ending Life: Ethics and the Way We Die [Indiebound|Amazon] and The Ethics of Suicide: Historical Sources [Indiebound|Amazon]

Oxford University Press and the University of Utah have partnered to create The Ethics of Suicide Digital Archives, which houses historical sources.

On VideoWest

GERDA: THE BODY THAT IS LEFT

When the time is right, Gerda Saunders is going to take her own life. Gerda has a progressive form of dementia and we’ve been following her during this process. Of course, identifying the right time is going to be difficult, but she knows her family will support her when she makes the call. Life is over, she told us, when you stop having the ability to make your mark in the world.

For help with thoughts of suicide, contact:

  • American Foundation for Prevention of Suicide, www.afsp.org
  • National crisis hotline, 800-273-TALK (8255)
  • Utah Suicide Hotline
    Valley Mental Health
    Crisis Line, 24 hours / 7 days
    (801) 261-1442

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Related Content
  • The poet, philosopher, and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht had very personal reasons for making suicide the topic of her latest book. Two of her friends…
  • Last week, an advocacy group made headlines when they said there’s been a startling increase in suicides among LGBT Mormon youth. They blamed LDS Church…