Exploring Ethical Dilemmas In: Medical Aid in Dying–Clinical and Ethical Perspectives with Terry M. Perlin, Ph.D.

• Science & Health

What does one do when there’s no clearly defined ethical road to take? This program features speakers from a variety of backgrounds — medicine, law, business, science, education, the arts, social work, etc. — who share their experience and knowledge of ethical issues in those fields. Monthly, 1st Monday. Monthly, 1st Monday.

Is it ethically appropriate to hasten death by medical means? Are legal and religious prohibitions important considerations? What can we learn from the experience of the several U.S.states that have legalized this “procedure” [e.g., Oregon, Washington, more recently California]? We shall look at cases in which moral decisions have been difficult. This discussion-based presentation will examine the underlying ethical issues at the end of life that should be addressed by individuals and their family/friends.

TERRY M . PERLIN, PH.D is Emeritus Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Resarch Fellow, Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University [OH]. He served as a faculty member there from 1975-2008. He has held teaching and research positions at University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; Wright State University School of Medicine; and as Visiting Professor, General Internal Medicine, at University of California, San Francisco.

For ten years Perlin was Ethics Consultant for the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). Here in New York, he has served as Visiting Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The author of CLINICAL MEDICAL ETHICS: CASES IN PRACTICE (Little, Brown and Co.), he is the author/editor of numerous books, articles, and review essays in both scientific and humanities journals.He has trained hospital ethics committees in case consultation since 1985.