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Join me and my guests on Sunday from 8.30 am for this week's edition of Sunday Sequence.

UNETHICAL EMBRYOS?: The use and abuse of the human embro has been much in the news this week, both in the Republic and in Britain. The High Court in Dublin will decide on Tuesday whether documents signed by a husband four years ago consenting to fertility treatment for his now-estranged wife constitute consent by him to have three frozen embryos taken out of storage and implanted in her uterus. Meanwhile, researchers at Newcastle University reported a breakthrough enabling sperm grown from embryonic stem cells to be used to produce offspring -- leading to the inevitable tabloidization of the story in the claim than science is about to make men redundant. We'll examine both stories with Carol Coulter, legal affairs correspondent of the Irish Times, the cell biologist Professor Colin McGuckin from Newcastle Univeresity, and Josephine Quintavalle from the lobby group Comment on Reproductive Ethics.

EXCOMMUNICATION: Last week, a cardinal called for Catholic scientists involved in stem cell research to be excommuniced. But is excommunication a threat anyone takes seriously anymore? Is it a medieval control mechanism with no place in the modern world? The theologican Father Tom Norris from St Patrick's College, Maynooth, joins the writer and broadcaster Lavinia Byrne, and Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of ecclesiastical history at Oxford University. We'll also invite the philosopher Peter Cave to mark the 350's anniversary of the 'excommunication' of one of the greatest minds of the Enlightenment -- the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza.

SEXIST CRIMES: Much of today's crime is rooted in men's attitude to women. That's one of the conclusions of a new report by the independent think tank The Crime and Society Foundation at King's College, London, which also contends that systemic misogyny and sexism across British society must be confronted. The report's author, Richard Garside outlines his research findings, with a response from Goretti Horgan, chair of the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network.

THE LIFE OF GALILEO: Judith Elliott reviews David Hare's production of The Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht, at the National Gallery in London.

BEIRUT: As Israel steps up its offensive to free two Israeli soldiers seized by the militant Islamic group Hezbollah ("the party of God"), we examine the history and objectives of Hezbollah with Amal Saad al-Ghorayeb, a professor at the Lebanehse American University, and author of Hezbollah: Politics and Religion.

THE PRAYING AGNOSTIC: Sir Anthony Kenny joins us live on Sunday's programme to talk about his new book, What I Believe. A former Catholic priest, who left the priesthood in 1963 after losing his faith, he became one of Britain's leading postwar intellectuals, serving as both Master of Balliol College, Oxford, and President of the British Academy, and distinguishing himself as an academic philosopher and author. I'll ask him why, as an agnostic, he still sometimes prays.

You can listen to Sunday Sequence online, on digital, on FM and on Medium Wave.