2008 Great Defender of Life Dinner

October 16, 2008

Please join us for our 6th annual Great Defender of Life dinner on Thursday, October 16th at the Union League Club in New York City.

We are pleased to announce our two honorees for 2008: Rita L. Marker and Wesley J. Smith, pro-life leaders on the forefront of the fight against legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Rita Marker is a practicing attorney and a former adjunct professor of political science and ethics at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. In 1987, she founded the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and she has been its executive director since. In a recent interview, Marker said the Task Force’s “main goal is to make sure patients have the opportunity to get the care and treatment they need and want . . . rather than giving doctors the power to end patients’ lives by lethal injection or a prescription for a lethal overdose.” Marker works indefatigably in the service of this goal: analyzing legal cases; traveling widely to lecture and to give legal advice; writing articles for medical and opinion journals and newspapers, and overseeing the publication of the Task Force’s newsletter, Update. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Deadly Compassion, which tells the tragic story of the life and death (by suicide) of Ann Humphry, wife of death guru Derek Humphry, a founder of the Hemlock Society and author of the best-selling do-it-yourself suicide manual Final Exit. A long-time HLR contributor, Rita spoke about our Review at our very first dinner, in 2003, and we are thrilled that this time she is coming to receive our award.

Wesley Smith is an attorney who left the full-time practice of law to pursue writing and public advocacy, co-authoring four books with consumer advocate Ralph Nader. As he wrote in his blog (Secondhand Smoke, at www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog), Rita played a pivotal role in his life: “Rita Marker was my mentor, after dragging me kicking and screaming into this line of work. Having read her wonderful Deadly Compassion, I was shocked to my shoes, and offered to give ten percent of my time to the work fighting assisted suicide. Well, you all know how that story went.” Yes we do: Wesley Smith is now giving about 110 percent to the cause, and the public record of his advocacy just keeps growing—journal articles and columns (for such publications as First Things, The Weekly Standard, National Review), speeches, and numerous books, including Forced Exit: The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder; Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America and Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World. Wesley, an electrifying speaker, introduced our Great Defender of Life honoree Nat Hentoff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Hentoff) in 2005. In what will be a treat indeed, Mr. Hentoff himself will attend this year’s dinner, and say a few words.

Introducing our awardees will be Bobby Schindler, brother of the late Terri Schiavo. Bobby and his family now run the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, (http://www.terrisfight.org/) a non-profit organization that helps families fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. After Terri’s death in 2005, her family was determined that her sacrifice would not be in vain, and so they have dedicated themselves full-time to helping other families protect their vulnerable loved ones from “deadly compassion.” Both Rita and Wesley did all they could to fight Terri’s death sentence, and Bobby Schindler is looking forward to helping us honor them and address our guests.

Order Your Tickets Now.
Call 212-685-5210 or
click here to download the
Great Defender of Life Dinner Reservation Form
and Mail to:
THE HUMAN LIFE FOUNDATION
353 LEXINGTON AVENUE
SUITE 802
NEW YORK, NY 10016