The Policy Advisory Group is a committee of legal and public policy professionals who believe that terminally ill Ohioans should have legal access to medical aid in dying. They are all volunteers. Read on to learn about the current members of the Ohio End of Life Options Law and Policy Advisory Group.
Ann Rowland, Group Chair
Ann Rowland served as a federal prosecutor for nearly 40 years before her retirement. She helped care for her brother-in-law in her home as he died from a brain tumor and determined that she would work to ensure that the terminally ill have autonomy in deciding how they die.
Click here to read Ann’s opinion letter published at Cleveland.com on June 25, 2019.
Ruth Anna Carlson
Ruth Anna Carlson is a retired health care attorney and adjunct law professor at CWRU where she taught Bioethics. Her interest in end-of-life issues comes from her law practice, including serving as one of the volunteer lawyers who created Ohio’s Advance Directive Forms in 1991, and especially her dad’s very difficult and unsatisfying experience at the end of his life.
David S. Goodman
David S. Goodman retired from the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, where he specialized in public finance law and served as Cleveland Office Managing Partner. He supports the mission of Ohio End of Life Options because he believes that empowering people to achieve death with dignity enhances both human autonomy and life’s sanctity.
Linda Mittleman
After working for 22 years as an attorney for two academic medical centers, University Hospitals Health System and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Linda Mittleman is teaching hospital risk management as an adjunct professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Her interest in end-of-life issues was nurtured by her mother as well as her career as a registered dietitian dealing with the withdrawal of nutrition and hydration.