Read the 2005 report by the United Nations Millennium Project about reducing gender inequality through education.

Read a August 23, 2012, story on the World Food Programme website about how the organization’s programs to improve maternal health have changed one community.

Read an August 2012 research report about the effects of religion on the spread of AIDS in Africa.

Read a Jan. 6, 2011, article in Bloomberg Businessweek about Kiva, a microlending non-profit, and how microfinancing can help women around the globe.

The Institute of Halal Investing in Portland, Ore., can provide an Islamic perspective on microfinance and development assistance. It is associated with Rubicon Global, a halal financial advisory firm.

Donn Moyer is the special communication project manager at Washington Department of Labor & Industries. He can discuss the department’s 2013 report on Washington’s Death With Dignity Act; the report tracked the number of individuals who made use of the law and how many doctors and pharmacists assisted them.

Silvia Sara Canetto is a psychology professor at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. She has written extensively about assisted suicide.

John Hardwig is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests include bioethics, especially end-of-life issues, and he is the editor of Is There a Duty to Die?: And Other Essays in Medical Ethics.

Dr. Christine Cassel is a geriatrician, ethicist and co-editor of Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life. She is the planning dean for the new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine coming to Oakland, Calif. in 2019.