Ethical Care
By Ethical Care MN
is a diverse coalition of doctors, nurses, advocates for persons with disabilities, medical ethicists, elder-care workers, faith-based organizations and others committed to ensuring real care throughout life’s journey.
We believe that Minnesota should always prioritize care rather than hasten death.
Every person has the right to receive health care and control their illnesses.
Assisted suicide can target and devalue people who most deserve our assistance and compassion: those with disabilities, the elderly, and low-income individuals.
Ethical CareFeb 02, 2022
Strengthening Care for People with Disabilities & Compassionate Alternatives to Physician-Assisted Suicide
Our discussion will address the direct care crisis and how ableism in healthcare is reinforced by policies such as the legalization of physician-assisted suicide which target people who are at-risk.
Jesse Bethke Gomez is Executive Director of the Metropolitan Center for Independent Living. MCIL is committed to empowering members of the disability community on a pathway to overcome barriers and to discover access, choices, and the possibilities to realize their goals and aspirations. Jesse served as Vice President of University Planning and Advancement at Metropolitan State University. He was also President of CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio) for 16 years which grew to be a nationally recognized agency for its work in responsive health care including behavioral health and newcomer communities.
The Value of Palliative Care
Dr. Buddensiek discusses why the evidence is clear that palliative care improves patient care —and quality outcomes for communities. This webinar will help empower you to make the case for greater investment in palliative care with organizational leaders, health plans, colleagues, and community partners.
Anorexia Nervosa and Assisted Suicide: A Dangerous Association
Dr. Guarda discusses ethical concerns specific to the treatment of anorexia nervosa. These arise from unique characteristics of this illness and from controversy and confusion over capacity to refuse treatment, over the role of involuntary treatment and palliative care for anorexia nervosa, and most recently the unethical promotion of physician assisted suicide for individuals with extreme anorexia.
Bipartisan Approaches to Opposing the Legalization of Assisted Suicide
Senator John Hoffman and Senator Jim Abeler will discuss their bi-partisan commitment as legislators to advocating for people with disabilities and ensuring that Minnesota healthcare policy upholds the dignity of all individuals. In particular, they will outline the inherent discrimination and ableism of assisted suicide laws and why their legislative coalition to oppose the legalization of assisted suicide in Minnesota transcends party affiliation.
Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality
There is no more important value than fundamental human equality. And yet, despite large percentages of people affirming the value, the resources available to explain and defend the basis for such equality are few and far between. Based on his newest book, "Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine Is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality," Charles Camosy will provide a thoughtful defense of human dignity.
Assisted Suicide Laws: Implications for State Institutions and Their Patients
Dr. Annette Hanson will discuss her experience reviewing legislation related to assisted suicide and explain implications for people with serious mental illnesses in state institutions and in the community. She will address the legal basis for these concerns and how familiarity with this information can inform advocacy efforts. Attendees will learn how assisted suicide laws complicate the practice of psychiatry and will learn relevant talking points that can be persuasive in discussions with mental health care professionals.
Disability Justice: The Pathway to Equity in Healthcare
This month's webinar features MN Alliance for Ethical Healthcare partner Dara Baldwin, the Director of National Policy for the Center for Disability Rights, Inc. She will lead a discussion of disability justice and how using this framework in the implementation of social justice work creates policy and change that is centered in equity. Ms. Baldwin will also provide a brief overview of the Center for Independent Living (CIL), the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and what it means to oppose the legalization of assisted suicide in disability advocacy.
About the Alliance:
The Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare is a nonprofit advocacy organization that seeks to promote sound healthcare policy and compassionate alternatives to the legalization of assisted suicide. The purpose of these webinars is to highlight the breadth and diversity of voices who are opposed to assisted suicide and hear more about the speaker’s efforts to promote ethical care. A speaker’s participation in an Alliance webinar does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker or his or her organization by the Alliance. Likewise, a speaker’s viewpoints or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Alliance or its members.
The Liberal, Humanist Case Against Assisted Suicide
First aired as a webinar
Discussion with Dr. Kevin Yuill to equip you with non-faith-based arguments to oppose assisted suicide and help you propose positive alternatives to the throwaway culture.
Dr. Kevin Yuill is an Associate Professor of American History at the University of Sunderland in the UK. Dr. Yuill is the author of Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization (2013) which argues that our attitudes towards suicide – not euthanasia – are most important to our attitudes towards assisted suicide. He has published in The Economist magazine, the Independent, the Spectator, and elsewhere on assisted suicide, which he opposes. A recently published article discusses the history of euthanasia and suicide in the US, linking eugenics and population control to the euthanasia campaign.
Take Action: Tell legislators to fully fund the Palliative Care Advisory Council -https://bit.ly/3hz5tgu.
Learn more about Minnesota's assisted suicide bill introduced during the 2021 legislative session: https://bit.ly/3v1DM4d
About the Alliance: The Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare is a nonprofit advocacy organization that seeks to promote sound healthcare policy and compassionate alternatives to the legalization of assisted suicide. The purpose of these webinars is to highlight the breadth and diversity of voices who are opposed to assisted suicide and hear more about the speaker’s efforts to promote ethical care. A speaker’s participation in an Alliance webinar does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker or his or her organization by the Alliance. Likewise, a speaker’s viewpoints or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Alliance or its members.
Assisted suicide and euthanasia for psychiatric patients in Canada and Europe with Dr. Mark Komrad
The webinar will focus on the dire expansion of assisted suicide and euthanasia laws for people with non-terminal or mental illnesses and help you propose compassionate alternatives to the throwaway culture.
Dr. Mark Komrad, MD is a practicing psychiatrist and medical ethicist for over 30 years in Baltimore, MD. He chaired the Ethics Committee of the Sheppard Pratt Health Systems, the largest non-profit mental health care system in Maryland, for two decades. He is a clinical professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, the University of Maryland and Tulane. He has lectured, taught and consulted in the U.S. and internationally on topics in psychiatric ethics, and published numerous articles in the field.
Dr. Komrad is a member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Assembly and previously served 6 years on the APA Ethics Committee. He has been lecturing widely through the U.S., Canada, Scandinavia, South America and Europe to address the ethical concerns that several hundred suicidal psychiatric patients in Belgium and the Netherlands are being voluntarily euthanized each year with lethal injections, typically by their own treating psychiatrists.
Learn more about Minnesota's assisted suicide bill introduced during the 2021 legislative session: https://bit.ly/3v1DM4d
About the Alliance:
The Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare is a nonprofit advocacy organization that seeks to promote sound healthcare policy and compassionate alternatives to the legalization of assisted suicide. The purpose of these webinars is to highlight the breadth and diversity of voices who are opposed to assisted suicide and hear more about the speaker’s efforts to promote ethical care. A speaker’s participation in an Alliance webinar does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker or his or her organization by the Alliance. Likewise, a speaker’s viewpoints or opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Alliance or its members.