C. Ben Mitchell, pictured left, is a board member of Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture. He also serves as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Union University in Jackson, TN, and coauthored Christian Bioethics with D. Joy Riley.
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Bioethicist C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D., is interviewed on The Eric Metaxas Show Read More »
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
How “neutral” can one be regarding assisted suicide? How about a medical organization? This past week, The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture sent a letter of concern to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization:
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2015 12:52:22 -0500
Subject: Physician-assisted suicide
Dear Board Members and Staff of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization:
It has come to my attention that you, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), are now considering changing your position statement from “opposing” physician-assisted suicide (P-AS) to taking a “neutral” ...read more
Shifting Gears on Physician-Assisted Suicide? Read More »
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
I doubt that Paul Simon had Physician-Assisted Suicide (P-AS) in mind when he penned the words to “Slip Slidin’ Away,” but they seem strangely apropos. The terms in the debate are the first to slip, slide away: the Hemlock Society became Compassion and Choices. The latter, which is involved in the Tennessee debate, is hopeful that physician-assisted suicide will become “aid-in-dying”; that is, before it slips into voluntary euthanasia, and then slides away into involuntary euthanasia.
What would happen if physician-assisted suicide (P-AS) were legal?
The role of physicians would be drastically altered. Guaranteeing ...read moreThe Little Fool by Karen Swenholt. Image by Ian Riley Photography.
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
A couple of years ago, I was encouraged to meet a figurative artist (sculptress, in this case). So I drove many hours to meet Karen Swenholt, and the drive was worth it. One of her pieces is pictured above. It is a metaphor that resonates with many of us: the man feels rooted, bound to the earth, or his circumstances, etc., and yearns to be free. So he takes an instrument into his hand — a knife — to free himself from his hateful condition, not ...read more
Severing Our Roots Read More »
This Australian stamp was issued in celebration of the General Assembly of World Medical Associations almost 50 years ago. At that time, the hypodermic syringe was a symbol of cure. Now, the picture of gloved hands administering an injection can represent something much more menacing.
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
The topic of physician-assisted suicide (P-AS) is a persistent one, especially when people are in pain or are worried about impending death. We need to think deeply and well about this issue. To help, the Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture is addressing P-AS from a different perspective for the second time in as many ...read more
Physician-Assisted Suicide: NOT Exactly What Its Proponents Advertise It To Be Read More »
John A. Holt, TN-CBC Intern
Videos of Brittany Maynard, who ended her life on November 1, 2014, by physician-assisted suicide (PAS), have brought the discussion of PAS to national and even international levels. A less publicized case is that of Robert McLester.
Carol McLester did not know why her husband asked for the gun. Bed-ridden since his stroke thirteen months earlier, a retired Navy officer of the outdoorsy type would seem to be trustworthy with a pistol. Carol willingly delivered the gun, then walked into the kitchen to finish washing the dishes. A few minutes passed before a resounding BANG split the ...read more
Things Are Not As They Seem Read More »
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
How do we treat the vulnerable among us? Ghost Boy, by Martin Pistorius with Megan Lloyd Davies, is an excellent book to help us explore this question.
Martin Pistorious was a 12-year-old South African school boy when he became ill in 1988. Over the next year, he became wheelchair bound and mute, and spent much of his time over the next 14 years in institutions. That is not the end of the story, however, and he, with Megan Lloyd Davies, tells the story of his awakening and subsequent life in Ghost Boy (Nashville, TN: Nelson Books, 2013).
Martin’s inability to ...read more
Book Review: Ghost Boy Read More »
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
Here’s a riddle for you: what do you do with the above pictured item? Do you melt it, re-form it, and use it for jewelry? Do you add it to a paint base and cover your walls? Or do you include it in a rice dish and serve it to your family?
Truthfully, you do none of the above. The gold-colored powder pictured above is not real gold; it would not make good jewelry. It is not pigment to add to your wall paint. It is certainly not saffron or curry powder to add to a rice ...read more
Knowing How to Treat Something Requires Knowing What It Is Read More »
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson had been on my shelf for some time before I summoned the courage to begin reading it. It is about William E. Dodd, a history professor from Chicago, who was appointed by President Roosevelt in 1933 to be America’s ambassador to Germany. The personalities and politics of many in the Third Reich as well as those in the diplomatic corps, and the Dodd family in particular, are paraded before the reader. Occasionally dropped into the narrative are laws that appear incidental to the story, but in truth provide ...read more
Stranger than Fiction Read More »
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.
Update: Tennessee voters approved Amendment 1 on 4 November 2014.
From the outset, I need to remind the reader that I am not an attorney, and that our organization is an educational corporation. What follows is hopefully educational and helpful as you move through the next several weeks.
A Constitutional Amendment is a serious undertaking, as represented by the path necessary for an idea/concept to become an amendment in Tennessee. Amendment 1 is the first of several on our 4 November 2014 ballots. It is a long-term result of a State Supreme Court decision in the year 2000. That ...read more
Tennessee Constitutional Amendment 1 Read More »
