The Death With Dignity National Center says that “(t)he greatest human freedom is to live, and die, according to one’s own desires and beliefs.” The center is based in Portland, Ore. For inquiries, contact Peter Korchnak at the number below.

Ellen K. Scott teaches in the sociology department of the University of Oregon in Eugene and has written extensively about welfare reform and its effect on family well-being.

David Gutterman is an associate professor of politics at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., where he teaches a course on religion and politics. Gutterman co-edited the book Religion, Politics and American Identity: New Directions, New Controversies.

Karen A. McClintock is a psychotherapist and United Methodist minister who wrote Sexual Shame: An Urgent Call to Healing. She is an expert on issues of sexual abuse of children by clergy and is a consultant to schools and churches on issues of sexuality. McClintock is an adjunct faculty member in the psychology department at Southern […]

Mark Shibley is a sociologist at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Ore. He has studied spirituality in the Pacific Northwest, historically the region with the greatest number of religiously unaffiliated people in the United States, and contributed a chapter on the subject to Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest: The None Zone.

The Rev. Mark Knutson is senior pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland, Ore. His church is one of two in the city involved in the New Sanctuary Movement. He has said his congregation would house an immigrant if the person needed sanctuary.

Read a Nov. 22, 2011, New York Times story about Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s decision to suspend executions and seek reforms to the state’s death penalty laws.

Dr. Mark Merkens is associate professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and co-author of “The Oregon Health Plan and the Ethics of Care for Marginally Viable Newborns” in the 2001 Journal of Clinical Ethics.

Laura Simmons is an associate professor of Christian ministries at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Newburg, Ore. One of her areas of expertise is seminary education.