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On All Things Considered this week (Sunday January 28 at 08.31am, repeated Thursday 1 February at 6.32pm), Roy Jenkins and a panel of guests discuss the controversy sparked by government insistence that Catholic adoption agencies conform to equality legislation.

The argument row shows little sign of going away. Rejection of an appeal from the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, backed by the Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York, faces the agencies with a stark dilemma: either they agree, against the teaching of their church, to help same-sex couples to adopt; or they break the law; or they close.

The position is equally clear from the opposite perspective: on equal rights there can be no exceptions - there is no right to pick and choose.

The row raises a range of issues about conscience, about law, and about the degree to which religious groups may be allowed to play a part in shaping society.

Joining Roy to discuss the issues are Charles Wookey, Assistant General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference; Richard Patterson, a leading member of the British Humanist Association; Akhandadhi das, Hindu priest and theologian based near Brecon; and Lorraine Cavanagh, an Anglican Chaplain at Cardiff University.