Making Sense of Physician Assisted Suicide – Dr. Lydia Dugdale
The Thomistic Institute
The Thomistic Institute
4.8 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
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Summary
Dr. Lydia Dugdale argues that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are morally and medically dangerous because they normalize suicide, undermine the physician-patient covenant, and place vulnerable people at risk.
This lecture was given on February 12th, 2026, at Vanderbilt University.
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About the Speakers:
Dr. Lydia Dugdale is the Silberberg Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University in New York City. As a medical doctor and ethicist, she cares for patients, consults on complex ethical issues in the hospital, and teaches medical trainees and undergraduate students. Her scholarly work focuses on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, the need to prepare well for death, and questions of moral injury and human flourishing. She is author of the book The Lost Art Of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom (HarperOne, 2020) and is currently writing a book on hope.
Keywords: Autonomy, Canada, Euthanasia, MAID, Medical Ethics, Oregon, Physician Assisted Suicide, Suffering, Vulnerable Patients, Life And Death
Transcript
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| 0:23.6 | Well, thanks everyone. It's a real delight to be here at Vandy and thanks to James for all |
| 0:29.6 | of the organizing and your team here with the Tomistic Institute. This is a topic assisted |
| 0:34.6 | suicide, also known as made, medical aid and dying or medical assistance in dying, that I have been following for about 15 years. |
| 0:42.3 | I give maybe three or four or five or six lectures on it a year, kind of updating things as things move along. |
| 0:50.3 | So it is, you might say, near and dear to my heart. What I would like to do is get you all engaged in the conversation. |
| 0:59.0 | So this is going to be slightly Socratic. |
| 1:01.0 | And what I want you to do is already be thinking, |
| 1:04.0 | because I'm going to come back and ask you this, |
| 1:07.0 | what are the strongest arguments in favor of legalization? And what are the strongest arguments in favor of legalization and what are the strongest arguments |
| 1:14.4 | opposed? |
| 1:16.8 | Because there are very good arguments on both sides. |
| 1:20.2 | And I think to discuss this issue meaningfully, we need to understand what both sides value as they push either for legalization or for |
| 1:31.6 | not it not having it be legalized does that make sense so I'm gonna I'm gonna |
| 1:35.5 | circle back in a second I'm just also wondering I don't see a clock do you I will |
| 1:40.4 | James you just let me know when I should maybe switch to Q&A. |
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