Mirror of Justice

Anyone want to teach Torts? In Minneapolis?

I apologize for bursting in after such a long absence for something with something that someone might argue has only the slightest relationship with Catholic Legal Theory, but this is urgent, and this is an audience I'd like to reach!  As some of you may know, the University of St. Thomas is in the midst of some leadership changes.  Our President is moving to Santa Clara University,  our beloved Law School Dean, Rob Vischer, will be serving as Interim University President, our equally beloved Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Joel Nichols, will be serving as Interim Dean of the Law School, and I will be serving as Interim Associate Dean.

These rather sudden transitions are complicated by the fact that our first year Torts classes were being taught by Rob and Joel, so we are looking for Torts coverage.   Here's the announcement Joel is posting:  please forward to anyone you think might be interested:

The University of St. Thomas School of Law (MN) is looking to hire a visiting professor for Fall 2022 to teach Torts. The ideal candidate would have experience teaching Torts and be able to teach two sections of Torts in the fall term, due to leadership changes at the school. Torts is a 4 credit, fall-only 1L class. Courses will be taught fully in-person, unless the public health situation changes significantly.

We would consider a full year visit for 22-23 (courses in spring term TBD based on the visitor’s expertise) and would also consider a visitor who can teach one section of Torts plus another course in an area of expertise. Please send inquiries and statements of interest to Joel Nichols, incoming Interim Dean, at [email protected]. Review of applications will begin immediately.

I know the timing means that most faculty are already committed for the fall, but I would appreciate it if you would share with colleagues who might be interested and available. People should feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] or by phone at 651-962-4827.

 

Confronting the new eugenics in abortion jurisprudence?

The Eighth Circuit issued its opinion in Little Rock Fam. Planning Svcs  v.  Leslie Rutledge: http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/21/01/192690P.pdf    

 

It upheld the injunctions against enforcement of the Arkansas laws prohibiting abortion after 18 weeks and abortions based on diagnosis of Down Syndrome, but the two concurrences by Judges Shepherd and Erickson are powerful -- citing and expanding on Justice Thomas' concurrence in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana & Kentucky. 

 

 

Debating the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Covid Era

On Sep. 30, I'll be moderating a Murphy Institute program on the legalization of physician-assisted suicide that was originally scheduled for this past March.  So much about our world has changed since then, including the social context and political landscape of debate on this topic.  Please join us as we explore these issues, in a Covid-era, user friendly, free and travel-less webinar.

Hot Topics: Cool Talk - Physician Assisted Suicide

Wednesday, September 30 3:30-5:30pm CST This is the rescheduled date for the program, originally planned for March 18.

Register

Assisted suicide is currently legal in ten jurisdiction in the United States: California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Maine (starting January 1, 2020), New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. Efforts are underway in many other states (including Minnesota) to enact similar laws. Join us in this extended edition of our Hot Topics: Cool Talk event series for a spirited but civil conversation about such laws between two advocates who take opposing views on this issue. Registration is encouraged as space is limited.  An email reminder along with a link to join the webinar will be sent to the address provided at registration to those who register prior to 12pm on September 30.  The webinar link will also be made available on the event webpage.   2.0 CLE credit approved.  This program is free and open to the public. Speakers John B. Kelly, Director of Second Thoughts MA: Disability Rights Advocates Against Assisted Suicide and New England Regional Director of Not Dead Yet. Thaddeus M. Pope, Director of the Health Law Institute at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, co-author of The Right to Die: The Law of End-of-Life Decisionmaking, and director of the Medical Futility Blog.

	[email protected] https://www.stthomas.edu/murphyinstitute/

Webinar on Disability-Based Rationing of Health Care

Hot Topics: Cool Talk

Who Matters? Who Cares? Disability-Based Rationing of Health Care Friday, May 22, 11am-12pm CST Livestream Webinar

Register

Join us for a conversation between a disability advocate and a medical ethicist exploring the legal and ethical implications of policies for allocating scarce medical resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on their impact on the elderly and persons with disabilities. Registration is required.  A link to join the webinar will be emailed to registrants on Friday, May 22 at 9am CST. 1.0 Elimination of Bias CLE credit has been applied for.  Please include an Attorney Number with registration to claim CLE credit. Speakers Charlie Camosy grew up in the cornfields of Wisconsin, but he is now an Associate Professor of Theology at Fordham University in the Bronx, where he has taught since finishing his PhD in theology at Notre Dame in 2008. Among other places, his published articles have appeared in the American Journal of Bioethics, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, the Journal of the Catholic Health Association, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News and America magazine. He is the author of five books. Too Expensive to Treat? (Eerdmans) was a 2011 award-winner with the Catholic Media Association, Peter Singer and Christian Ethics (Cambridge) was named a 2012 "best book" with ABC Religion and Ethics, and For Love of Animals (Franciscan) was featured in the New York Times. Beyond the Abortion Wars (Eerdmans), was also a 2015 award-winner with the Catholic Media Association. His most recent book, Resisting Throwaway Culture (New City), was published in May of 2019. In addition to advising the Faith Outreach office of the Humane Society of the United States and the Children's Hospital of New York, Camosy received the Robert Bryne award from the Fordham Respect Life Club and received the 2018 St. Jerome Award for scholarly excellence from the Catholic Library Association. He has four children, three of whom he and his wife Paulyn adopted from a Filipino orphanage in June of 2016.        Barnett (Bud) Rosenfield is a supervising attorney with the Minnesota Disability Law Center and Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid.  For most of the past 22+ years, he has focused on individual and systems advocacy on Medical Assistance, social services, and civil rights issues for persons with disabilities.  He currently oversees the Disability Law Center's Community Services & Integration and Policy teams.  Prior to joining Legal Aid, Bud represented individuals in employment discrimination and civil rights cases.  An avid baseball fan, he is trying to patiently await for the games to, once again, begin...

651-962-4842 [email protected] https://www.stthomas.edu/murphyinstitute

NCPD Statement: Rights of Persons w/ Disabilities to Medical Treatment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Here is a statement on this important issue from the National Catholic Partnership on Disability.  We worked hard to try to boil down some complicated ethical concepts into the essential basic ideas, to make it accessible to the widest audience who might need to use these arguments. 

There's a snazzy infographic with the same message here, and we've posted a video with an even more basic description on Utube:

 

 

Catholic feminist perspective on on-line learning

As we all sort through the consequences of our crash-landing into the world of on-line education, here's another very refreshing perspective.  Some aspects of what we are all learning to do now could be opening doors to many people, such as this (obviously smart and talented) woman:  https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/04/61875/  

Good News/Bad News on Legalization of Assisted Suicide

Bad news: 

Maine's Governor Janet Mills signed the bill that  had passed in both chambers by narrow margins that legalizes assisted suicide in that state,  joining California, Colorado, DC, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. This law was opposed by, among others, a coalition of disability advocacy groups  in an open letter to Governor Mills that ends with the argument:

There are ways to address the reasons people have for requesting assisted suicide, but it starts with a societal commitment to treat all suicides as a tragedy, to respond to anyone’s expression of suicidal feelings with an equal level of support, affirmation of the value of their life and effort to address their concerns. A two-tiered system where most people get suicide prevention but certain people get suicide assistance is a deadly form of discrimination that should not be accepted. Assisted suicide laws exacerbate the disability stigma that prevails in our culture and undermine people’s genuine autonomy by establishing a medically administered program of suicide approval and assistance in a health care environment already riddled with pressures to cut costs of care.

The letter was signed by the following groups:

• ADAPT
• American Association of People with Disabilities
• Assn of Programs for Rural Independent Living
• Autistic Self Advocacy Network
• Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
• National Council on Disability
• National Council on Independent Living
• National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities
• National Spinal Cord Injury Association
• Not Dead Yet
• TASH
• The Arc of the United States
• United Spinal Association

Good news: The American Medical Association (AMA) upheld its long-standing opposition to assisted suicide by a vote of 392-162, holding that:

“Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.”

Special Issue of Journal of Disability and Religion, "Navigating Impasses in Bioethics: End of Life, Disability, and Mental Illness"

The Journal of Disability and Religion has published a special issue with contributions from an interdisciplinary workshop on "Navigating Impasses in Bioethics: End of Life, Disability, and Mental Illness" that was jointly organized by the Von Hugel Institute of Critical Catholic Inquiry at Cambridge University, and the Murphy Institute of the University of St. Thomas in December 2017.  As an apology for the delay in the publication, they are making the issue available on-line for free until the end of May -- a real deal, since the publication typically secured behind a fairly prohibitive pay-wall. 

You can access the entire issue here.

My contribution explores "The Contradictory Expressive Functions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Physician-assisted Suicide Laws."  Here's the abstract:

Certain laws, such as civil rights laws and criminal laws, are considered to have powerful expressive functions. The expressive functions may be directed at shifting social norms, or at articulating a social consensus about a particularly important norm. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is such a law, expressing the norm that “society’s accumulated myths and fears about persons with disabilities” are as debilitating as actual disabilities. This article will analyze the arguments of disability rights advocates that the expressive effect of laws legalizing physician-assisted suicide directly contradicts the norm of the ADA.

Here are links to the other excellent articles in the issue, written by scholars from many different disciplines, offering perspectives from the US, Europe, and Canada. 

MAiD in Canada and the Homo Economicus View of Dignity: Inclusive Enough?, Thana C. de Campos

The Weight of Living: Autonomy, Care, and Responsibility for the Self, Patrick McKearney

“This Condition isn't Going to get any Better so I can't see why we're Prolonging it”: Risks and Benefits of using Empirical Research to Inform Normative Decisions Concerning End-of-Life Care, Elizabeth Fistein, Gemma Clarke, Anthony Holland & Stephen Barclay

Assisted Dying and Suicide Prevention,  David Albert Jones

Lives Not Worth Living: Rethinking Autonomy and Assisted Dying in the Light of Profound Disability, Lidia Ripamonti

Living and Dying with a Disability in Debtor Society: Why Context Matters in Assisted Suicide Debates, Brian Brock

Anthropologies of Hope and Despair: Disability and the Assisted-Suicide Debate, David Elliot

 

 

Jean Vanier, R.I.P.

 

A truly great man passed from this life to the next two days ago -- Jean Vanier. He dedicated much of his 90 years of life to making the world a better place for people with disabilities, and, as a consequence, a better place for everyone in the world.  He is probably best known for founding L'Arche, a worldwide movement dedicated to bringing men and women with disabilities into the heart of their societies, making their voices heard, and providing a true home and the opportunity to share everyone’s unique gifts to the fullest.

For the past two years, I have had the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors of L'Arche USA, supporting the work of L'Arche communities in the US.  (In fact, I am leaving tomorrow for our bi-annual in-person board meeting, taking place in Erie, PA, where the very first L'Arche community  in the US was founded in 1972.) I have truly come to appreciate the genius of Jean, and what he set in place back in 1964, when he moved into this little house in Trosley, France, with two men with developmental disabilities, Raphaël and Philippe.

L’Arche now includes more than 150 communities in 38 countries around the globe.  L’Arche USA includes 17 communities and 5 projects in states across the country.

In addition to his work with L’Arche, Vanier co-founded Faith and Light and inspired the creation of many other organizations. He influenced thousands of people around the world and published some 40 books, including on how people with intellectual disabilities make essential contributions to building a more humane society.

His most-widely read book is probably Becoming Human.  Two more that I particularly treasure are Living Gently in a Violent World:  The Prophetic Power of Weakness (with Stanley Hauerwas), and Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Through the Gospel of John.

His sister, Thérèse Vanier, who left a distinguished career as a pioneering doctor in palliative care to join the L'Arche movement, wrote the following beautiful prayer which captures so much of what you will find in Jean's writings, and his life's work:

“May oppressed people and those who oppress them set one another free. May those who are disabled and those who think they are not, help one another. May those who need someone to listen to them move the hearts of those who are too busy. May the homeless give joy to those who, albeit unwillingly, open their door to them. May the poor melt the hearts of the rich. May those who seek the truth give life to those who are satisfied because they have already found it. May the dying who do not want to die be comforted by those who find it very hard to live. May those who are not loved be authorized to open the hearts of those who are not successful in loving. May prisoners find true freedom and free others from fear. May those who sleep on the streets share their kindness with those who do not manage to understand them. May the hungry tear the veil from the eyes of those who do not hunger for justice. May those who live without hope purify the hearts of their brothers and sisters who are afraid of living. May the weak confuse the strong. May hatred be surmounted by compassion. May violence be neutralized by men and women of peace. May it surrender to those who are totally vulnerable, so that we may be healed.”

Supreme Court review of Indiana law prohibiting abortion based on race, sex, or diagnosis of disability

In case you missed it in the haze of the New Year celebrations, here's an excellent analysis (by Notre Dame's Carter Snead and Mary O'Callaghan) of the case argued before the Supreme Court on Jan. 2, challenging Indiana's law prohibiting abortions based on a child's "race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, or diagnosis or potential diagnosis of . . . Down syndrome or any other disability." (See 7th Circuit opinion in Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky v. Commissioner, Indiana State Department of Health striking down the law here.)  Snead and O'Callaghan point out that the 7th Circuit's denial of the petition for an en banc rehearing of the case includes a strong dissent by Judge Easterbrook, who argues:  "Using abortion to promote eugenic goals is morally and prudentially debatable on grounds different from those that underlay the statutes Casey considered."
Snead and O'Callaghan argue: 

Judge Easterbrook is correct as a legal matter about the meaning of Casey. More importantly, the ramifications of leaving this narrow question unsettled far outstrip those associated with interpretation of the Medicaid Act. Regardless of our nation’s polarized views on the policy and politics of abortion, it is clear that our Constitution does not include a right to abort children merely because of disfavored characteristics. The Seventh Circuit’s erroneous decision gets this basic legal question wrong, and leaves the most vulnerable populations among us, born and unborn, susceptible to the view that we have a “moral duty” to eradicate them, that we are “better off” without them, and that their value can be calculated in dollars and cents.

 

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