Everyday Ethics

The ability to predict our prognoses is as old as medicine itself. But do the remarkable advances in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning mean that we are now being promised answers to one of life's ultimate questions - when will I die? Analysing our health information, various algorithms do now exist to predict mortality. It's an ethical minefield - both for medical practitioners and ourselves. Could care be curtailed based on predicted life expectancy? Would there be an onus on informing partners or employers about specific health conditions and our prognosis? Could these algorithms worsen health inequalities in our society? Audrey Carville was joined by Manu Thomas (an advanced clinical practitioner, now managing director of Pentafold, a software development company specialising in AI and Data Science), Dr Sara Lorimer (lecturer in Cognitive Psychology at Ulster University), Dr Nisha Sharma (consultant radiologist and director of the Breast Screening Programme for Leeds and Wakefield) and theologian Professor Laurence Kirkpatrick.

George Eliot famously wrote: 'our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them'. With that in mind, how do you want to be remembered when you die? Is it a better question than asking what do I want to do with my life? What do I want my life to look like in five years? How can I achieve the success that I crave? Are those questions too focused on self? Do they neglect to consider the potential impact we might have on those around us? Perhaps asking how you want to be remembered puts the focus on our values and how we would like to make others feel? Audrey Carville was joined by writer Deborah Sloan, academic Dr Leon Litvack, and political and communications consultant Quintin Oliver.

Professor Raphael Bengoa returned to Northern Ireland on Tuesday. Eight and a half years after his team's 25 thousand word report, the need to transform health and social care in Northern Ireland is even more pressing. Politicians in the NI Executive accepted the report at the time, which explained how health services could be delivered differently and more effectively.

One year ago, news began breaking about an attack on Israel by the Islamic group Hamas whose fighters invaded southern Israel and murdered around 1200 people - children, women and men.

What drives someone to change their faith? It can't be an easy decision- or can it?

Is it easier to remember than to forget? What would happen if we did forget our past? Would we be consumed by guilt? Would we be free to heal? Would it be liberating?

Morals and values - Are they inextricably linked to faith? Have they changed over time, as society changes? What about those who find themselves on the outside of society because their values don't match the majority?

Presenter Audrey Carville meets Ravinder Naga falsely confessed to stealing money from his mother's post office to protect her from going to prison.

He recently had his conviction quashed- he's the latest victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal to be cleared through the court system.

We often hear people talking about their need for "me time" and, in the busy world of work and family, that is indeed a genuine need, but further up the age brackets there's often very little but "me time" with older people feeling increasingly lonely, isolated and disconnected from a world that seems in a dreadful rush, a world where people spend so much time on their phones or tablets rather than engaging with the people next to them, a world where someone can very quickly feel that they don't really belong anymore.

Would there be less chaos, less anxiety and less fear in the world today had the Western powers of the United States, France and Britain left Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi in place? Today millions of people are displaced around the world, far right and white supremacist groups continue to grow in strength and some Muslim men continue to be radicalised. Could much of this have been prevented had the West stayed out of Iraq and Libya? Audrey Carville talks to Patrick Cockburn (a journalist who reported extensively from the region), Jane Kinninmont (an expert in the politics of the Middle East) and Mahjoob Zweiri (director of the Gulf Studies Centre and Associate Professor in Contemporary Politics of the Middle East at Qatar University in Doha).