Comedian and Broadcaster Andrew Denton has once again stepped into the spotlight, this time bringing with him a cause close to his heart.

Due for release in 2016, his new project Better off Dead is a podcast he has been working on for many months that discusses the controversial topic of voluntary euthanasia.

His interest in the discussion started with his father’s death 18 years ago:

“I watched him dying in pain over three days when there wasn’t sufficient pain relief for him, despite the best they could do.”

Denton researched the idea of voluntary euthanasia, travelling across the globe visiting countries that already have Voluntary Assisted Dying programs such as Oregon, Netherlands and Belgium. He wanted to see what they do that has been working for the past decade. He also attended an anti-euthanasia convention to see the other side of the issue.

He understands that it is a difficult moral question, but is passionate that we need to have a humane and civilised option for our own death made available in Australia.

Denton was on the Project last week to talk about the issue, he said:

“I think it should be what’s called voluntary assisted dying whereby after you have seen two independent doctors, after it has been fully discussed with you, if you have an unbearable and untreatable suffering then you can be prescribed a medication which you and only you can take if and when you are ready.”

“There is no law ever devised that can never be abused. In Australia with no safe guards, we don’t know when people are being assisted to die or if it’s being done properly, if it’s being done for the right reasons, if it’s being done for people who want it.”

In the new podcasts promised to be released early 2016, Andrew Denton investigates stories, moral arguments and individuals woven into discussions about why good people are dying bad deaths.

Podcasts have become very important for long form audio such as Denton’s new project.

Click here for more radioinfo coverage of podcasts.

Watch below for the full interview on the project: