On the evening of Oct. 14, 1999, in the ballroom of the UC, a panel addressed this complex issue, with the goal of providing information--the lifeblood of intelligent decision-making. Panelists leading the discussion were:

*Mary Schaffner, an attorney with Howell and Fisher, Nashville, who has represented clients petitioning to be granted the right to die;

*Dr. Alfred Calahan III, a Nashville neurologist opposed to doctor-assisted suicide;

*Dr. James Nixon, retired dean of APSU College of Arts and Sciences who is state president of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP);

*The Rev. George Gracey, pastor of Clarksville's First Presbyterian Church;

*Father Gerald Baker, pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Hopkinsville, Ky. Gracey and Baker presented theological perspectives on the issue.

The forum was sponsored by APSU's social work department. Glenn Carter, chair of the department, said, "If you are 90 years old, living with ceaseless pain and no hope of getting better, who has the right to tell you you must live? It comes down to preserving life at all costs versus quality of life. Who decides which is more important?

"In social work, we believe strongly in self-determination. It's our philosophy that, in all areas of life, a person has a right to make his or her own decisions."

Just days prior to the symposium, "The Tennessean" newspaper ran an article about the government of The Netherlands, which was in the process of passing a bill to loosen restrictions on euthanasia "for pain-wracked, incurably ill people, even extending the right to children as young as 12" with parental permission.

Tennessee has a limited right-to-die statute. According to Carter, the right to die is a gray area, involving religious, moral and ethical beliefs and consequences. Pointing to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, jailed in 1999 "because he pushed the limits," Carter notes there are extremists, like Kevorkian, who move from doctor-assisted suicide to overt euthanasia.

"Those of us in human services and health fields know many doctors allow--even enable--their suffering, terminally ill patients to die. They don't inject them with a lethal dose of something. Instead, they prescribe potent medication that, ingested in one dose, allows the patient to end his own life. Is such a doctor as guilty as Dr. Kevorkian?"

Carter talked, also, about the financial drain on families that want to keep vegetative relatives alive. And, citing the case of Karen Quinlan, he discussed the emotional stress on families who decide to "pull the plug." In this well-publicized case, Quinlan had been in a vegetative state for months before the New Jersey Supreme Court gave the family permission to remove life support. Inexplicably, her other organs did not shut down, as expected, and she continued to breathe for nine more years.

Carter acknowledges there are no easy answers. "Some religious groups forbid suicide because their doctrine says suicide, regardless of circumstances, is a mortal sin with eternal, irrevocable consequences," Carter said. "Do their followers accept such dogma without question? For some, even questioning could be considered a sin."

The strongest advocates of euthansia don't want to make it easy. Carter says they sanction safeguards to ensure greedy relatives aren't too eager to help "grandma pass away."