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The Prime Minister said the second lockdown in England was necessary to avoid the "medical and moral disaster" of the NHS being overwhelmed. In starker terms: many people will die if nothing is done, and not just of Covid-19. Depending on one\\u2019s perspective, the government\\u2019s strategy has either been too concerned, or not concerned enough, with the avoidance of death above all else. What has the crisis revealed about our attitude to our own mortality and how we value human life? Some are accused of being too blas\\xe9 about the fact that many who died in the first wave of the pandemic either had \\u2018underlying conditions\\u2019 or, more bluntly, would have died soon anyway. Others, who believe the second lockdown should have been sooner and more severe, are accused of giving in to fear \\u2013 as one lady quipped in a TV vox pop: \\u201cI\\u2019m 83 and I don\\u2019t give a sod\\u201d. Nevertheless, the coronavirus has made many people face death far earlier than they were expecting. People have died alone and their loved ones have grieved for them in isolation. For some, the pandemic has highlighted how inadequate we are at confronting death more generally. Medical progress has given us longer and healthier lives yet there are many who believe that we have focused too much on prolonging life rather than making the time we have left meaningful. We also live in an age when some think the prospect of \\u2018defeating death\\u2019 is in touching distance. Is death the ultimate taboo in our culture? If we can\\u2019t medicalise our way out of it, how can we live \\u2013 and die \\u2013 well? With Prof Michael Hauskeller, Kathryn Mannix, Revd Dr Brendan McCarthy and Prof Ellen Townsend.

Producer: Dan Tierney.