Here is a link to a discussion at the Heritage Foundation addressing ethical options for providing care for the terminally ill. The participants were Ryan Anderson, Farr Curlin, Kevin Donovan, and Robert Moffitt. Here are some of the key points:
- Eliminating suffering by eliminating those who suffer is not a new temptation. That is why doctors have committed themselves for centuries to the Hippocratic Oath.
2. The emerging debate over physician-assisted suicide and end-of-life care in state legislatures around the country is a watershed moment.
3. The normalization of medical killing poses a threat to the poor, the elderly, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable members of society.
4. Public policy can encourage ethical alternatives to physician-assisted suicide.
Richard Myers
Richard S. Myers, the Vice-President of UFL, is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, where he teaches Antitrust, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, and Religious Freedom. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College and earned his law degree at Notre Dame, where he won the law school's highest academic prize. He began his legal career by clerking for Judge John F. Kilkenny of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Myers also worked for Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, D.C. He taught at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law before joining the Ave Maria faculty. He is a co-editor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives (Catholic University of American Press, 2004) and a co-editor of Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2007). He has also published extensively on constitutional law in law reviews and also testified before Congressional and state legislative hearings on life issues.
Married to Mollie Murphy, who is also on the faculty at Ave Maria School of Law, they are the proud parents of six children - Michael, Patrick, Clare, Kathleen, Matthew, and Andrew. http://www.avemarialaw.edu/index.cfm?event=faculty.bio&pid=11705E7D4E0111010366
