news
- Skip Navigation
- News and Events
- News Archive
- Calendars
- For the Media
- Colby-Sawyer Currents
- Alumni Magazine
- Sports News
- Faculty Experts Guide
- Contacts
for more information
Kimberly Slover
Director, College Communications
(603) 526-3647
archived news releases
Adventures in Learning Sponsors Public Lecture on Physician-assisted Suicide
NEW LONDON, N.H., June 15, 2006 — A program titled “The Right to Die: A Physicians' Dialogue” will be held on Saturday, Aug. 19, from 10 a.m. until noon, at Colby-Sawyer College. Sponsored by Adventures in Learning (AIL), this special lecture will take place in Clements Hall in the Curtis L. Ivey Science Center on the campus.
The panelists will include Dr. James Bernat, Dr. David Babbott and Dr. Robert C. Macauley. The program is free and open to the public but does require reservations. To reserve a seat, please contact Janet St. Laurent at (603) 526-3690.
The panel will consider such questions as: Should physician-assisted suicide be legalized so that it can become an option in end-of-life care? How does it differ from a patient's dying after refusing life-sustaining therapy? Will legalizing physician-assisted suicides lead to the legalization of euthanasia?
Dr. Bernat will lead off the program by framing the debate over whether physician-assisted suicide is a valid part of palliative care of the dying patient. Following his talk, Dr. Babbott will present the case for legalization of physician-assisted suicide, and then Dr. Macauley will present the case against it. The Oregon law and the Vermont bill to legalize assisted suicide will also be reviewed. A question-and-answer session will follow.
Dr. Bernat was the moderator at last summer's outstanding program on stem cell research. A nationally recognized expert in ethical and philosophical issues in neurology, he has written more than 150 journal articles and chapters and is the author of Ethical Issues in Neurology, and co-editor of Palliative Care in Neurology. Dr. Babbott is professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Vermont and a member of the Death with Dignity Vermont Board of Directors. Dr. Macauley is medical director of clinical ethics at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt. He is both an Episcopal priest and an attending pediatrician in Middlebury, Vt.
Adventures in Learning
Adventures in Learning is a lifelong learning program associated with Colby-Sawyer College. Established in 1998, Adventures in Learning offers a variety of study groups, tours and activities for residents of the Kearsarge-Sunapee area. Most of the study groups are taught by AIL members. Peer-learning lies at the heart of the many lifelong learning programs that are associated with colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Colby-Sawyer, founded in 1837, is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in the scenic Lake Sunapee Region of central New Hampshire. Students from 26 states and six foreign countries learn in small classes through a select array of programs that integrate the liberal arts and sciences with pre-professional experience.
