Community Calendar

Midcoast Senior College presents SUMMER WISDOM free lecture series - Part I of The Death with Dignity Law featuring Jon (“Jim”) Oxman and Ned Claxton. This program is sponsored by Thornton Oaks Senior Living Community in Brunswick. Using the 2019 Maine legislature bill, LD 1313 – An Act to Enact the Maine Death with Dignity Act, and current statute as a starting point, we will review the 30-year history of that legislation and the legal foundations of the current law. From the legislative perspective we will Include consideration of the testimony by advocates and opponents related to the bill and a summary of Maine’s experience with this law so far. From the legal perspective we review some of the key state and federal judicial rulings and statutes that relate to this topic and their contribution to our current understanding of the law. Throughout these discussions we are hoping to elicit questions and promote discussion of the ethical issues that arise in this medical/legal/ethical arena. Jon Oxman is a practicing attorney in Auburn and a partner, for over 50 years, at Linnell, Choate & Webber, focusing on workers’ compensation and medico-legal issues. He has been a member of the Human Ethics Committee of Central Maine Healthcare for several decades and has been a frequent presenter in medico-legal matters in several venues. He was, from about 2005 through 2021 an adjunct assistant professor in the UNE Masters Program for Physician Assistants. In the late-1980’s he was counsel to the injured party in the matter of In Re: Gardner, which established the right, in Maine, to withdraw treatment in a case with the victim in a vegetative state. He has served as a guardian and conservator for several persons. Ned Claxton moved to Maine in 1978 to co-found a primary care practice. He worked at Family Healthcare Associates until 2001, when he left to become the program director of the Central Maine Medical Center Family Medicine Residency. In that role he became a hospital leader. After leaving the residency in 2009, he assumed a series of senior physician leadership roles at CMMC until he retired in 2018. During those 40 years, he served on the Ethics Committee and the hospital board. After a year of campaigning, he was elected to the Maine Senate and served for 4 years before retiring in 2022. He served on the Committee on Health and Human Services during that time and was the senate chair of the committee for the last 2 years.

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