Looking Forward to a Fall 2025 Canada/US Collaborative Seminar on “Health Law, Policy and Ethics in an Aging World”

Just a quick note here as most of us are getting ready for the first day of classes for the 2025-26 academic year.  This year, I have the great privilege of working with University of Ottawa Law Professor Vanessa Gruben to offer a new, collaborative seminar course for U.S. and Canadian students.  The course heading of “Health Law, Policy and Ethics in an Aging World,” will allow our students to explore a wide range of topics where law and public policies may diverge. 

In fact, just today I read a fact that surprised me.  New York Times opinion writer David French examines “What It Really Means to Choose Life.”   He reports on a statistic I did not know until today, that Canada’s program supporting Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) accounts for one in 20 deaths in Canada — more than Alzheimer’s and diabetes combined.  The details for why and how this can be true will undoubtedly give people on either side of our borders opportunities to talk seriously.

We are using a research handbook on “Law. Society and Ageing”  published in 2024 by Edward Elgar and edited by U.K.’s Sue Westwood and USA’s Nancy Knauer as our textbook for the course.  This is a new opportunity with digital access that allow the short chapters that are grouped by topic to be used as springboards for further research.  

I look forward to providing interim progress reports on the course experience, which is inspired by last year’s experience as a Fulbright Fellow based at the University of Ottawa School of Law.