Dr. Aaron Kheriaty - Evening Lecture, Wine & Cheese

Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Physician Assisted Suicide

UPDATE - 7/7/15  Good news - for now. SB 128, California's right-to-die bill is dead for the year. Nonetheless, the battle is not over, as we'll likely face a court case and a ballot initiative on the issue next year.

California is currently in the midst of intense public debates regarding the legalization of physician assisted suicide, modeled on the law in Oregon.  The latest wave of support has been fueled by the widely publicized case of Brittany Maynard, a young woman with terminal cancer who moved last year from California to Oregon in order to end her life by this means.  However, concerns about legalizing this practice in California have been raised by a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including disability rights organizations, medical professionals, faith-based groups, healthcare advocates and community activists.  

This lecture will focus on problems with physician assisted suicide from the perspective of a psychiatrist and medical ethicist, examining some of the adverse consequences of legalizing physician assisted suicide for patients, the practice of medicine, and society.

Aaron Kheriaty is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Program in Medical Ethics at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine. He serves as chairman of the clinical ethics committee at UCI Medical Center. Dr. Kheriaty graduated from the University of Notre Dame in philosophy and pre-medical sciences, and earned his MD degree from Georgetown University. On the issue of assisted suicide and SB 128, he has published articles in the Wall Street Journal, the Orange County Register, and First Things, and has conducted televised debates and radio interviews on NPR, NBC, CBS, and Fusion.  Dr. Kheriaty was invited to speak on this issue to the California Medical Association.  He testified before the Senate Health Committee on SB 128, and his work was cited on the Senate floor during the debates.

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