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Death and dying Euthanasia

“Death and Budgets”

That is the title of a column by David Brooks in yesterday’s New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opinion/15brooks.html?_r=3&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Brooks comments on an op-ed piece in last Sunday’s New York Times by Dudley Clendinen, who has ALS. Clendinen’s piece expressed the author’s inclination to commit suicide when his condition worsened. (Teresa already posted about Clendinen’s essay. http://uffl.org/blog/?p=1139  )

The column by Brooks has now prompted some powerful comments by Wesley Smith (http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/07/15/david-brookss-bag-of-skin-language-promotes-anti-disability-loathing/ )and Ryan Anderson (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/271998/good-short-life-and-human-dignity-ryan-t-anderson). Smith notes the dehumanizing language employed by Brooks to describe patients with disabilities, and notes how the financial issues will increasingly push a “duty to die.” 

Richard M.

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