The Weinberg Center for Elder Justice and Westchester County's Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) invite you to this educational program, offered via Zoom.
About the Presentation: Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) is an end-of-life option for terminally ill, mentally competent adults that is legal in 12 jurisdictions. New York is on the cusp of becoming the 13th state to legalize MAID, with the bill awaiting Governor Hochul’s signature. This CLE reviews the legal history of MAID in the US from the first ballot initiative in 1988 to cases now pending before the Third and Ninth Circuits. Professor Pope illuminates how MAID laws differ from state to state, and where the New York law falls on this continuum. He demystifies the law’s eligibility criteria and safeguards. He addresses common themes from opponents, including that MAID fails to protect vulnerable adults and that patients may be coerced into requesting MAID.
About the Presenter: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C is a foremost expert on medical law and clinical ethics. He focuses on patient rights and healthcare decision making, especially at the end of life. A fellow of the Hastings Center and previously both a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, and a visiting scholar with the Brocher Foundation in Switzerland; Pope is now a Professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While Professor Pope serves in a range of consulting capacities, he has been particularly influential through extensive high-impact scholarship. Ranked among the Top 20 most-cited health law scholars, Pope has over 300 publications in medical, law, and bioethics journals. His books include: • The Right to Die: The Law of End-of-Life Decision Making and • Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: A Compassionate, Widely Available Option for Hastening Death. His Medical Futility Blog has received over 5 million pageviews. And he writes for both UPTODATE and The Merck Manual. Particularly notable among Professor Pope’s publications are policy guidance statements on ethics in critical care for major professional medical societies, and clinical practice guidelines on topics such as brain death and medical aid in dying. Apart from scholarship, Pope has been a legal consultant and expert witness in court cases involving end-of-life treatment.