On
Wednesday, November 7,
Arthur B.
LaFrance, E. George Rudolph Distinguished Visiting Chair of Law for
2007—08, presented the Rudolph Lecture at the University of Wyoming College
of Law. The topic of the Rudolph Lecture was physician-assisted suicide, in
particular how the state of Oregon has dealt with this issue. Oregon is the
only political community in the world to authorize physicians to assist
terminal patients in dying. Extensive monitoring and reporting have now
documented seven years of experience. This was the basis for Professor
LaFrance’s amicus brief before the United States Supreme Court in support of
Oregon’s legislation.
The Rudolph Lecture
garnered a full house ranging from law students to attorneys,
including
Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Burke. Members of the medical community and
the general public were also in attendance. Ruth Rudolph, widow of E. George
Rudolph, also attended the lecture.
(Photo right: Ruth Rudolph listens attentively with other audience members.)
Arthur B. LaFrance is a professor of law at the Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, where he has taught in the field of law and medicine for more than 20 years. In addition to teaching basic health law courses, his specialty is bioethics, a field in which he has published one book and several articles. LaFrance has taught bioethics at universities from Houston, Texas to Perth, Australia and, most recently, in Christchurch, New Zealand. He believes in practicing what he preaches, and has represented parties pro bono in healthcare litigation of public interest, including tobacco litigation and hospital conversions. His most recent article, published in New Zealand and Seattle, is on American health care reform at the state level.
Professor
LaFrance has lectured throughout the United States and internationally on
the ethics and the practice of physician-assisted death. His presentation
will be supported by PowerPoint slides and he will be happy to take
questions after the lecture. Professor LaFrance has taught bioethics at
several universities and is using his casebook,
Bioethics: Healthcare, Human rights
and the Law, to teach bioethics this semester at the University of
Wyoming College of Law.
The Rudolph Chair was established in 1993 because of a generous gift from the Paul Stock Foundation to honor E. George Rudolph, who served on the UW College of Law faculty for 41 years, including eight years as dean (1971-1979).
Photo left: Ruth
Rudolph and Dean Jerry Parkinson. Photo below: Ronda Munger and Wyoming
Supreme Court Justice E. James Burke.