GLENDALE : Experts Debate Assisted Suicide

A group that helps families plan funerals and keep costs down will sponsor a forum on assisted suicide today at the First Methodist Church in Glendale.

“We do talk to a lot of family members who are dealing with illnesses,” said Natalie Bellick, a board member and former director of the Los Angeles Funeral Society. “Sometimes, when we talk long enough, these kinds of questions will come up.”

But it is not a topic members of the society bring up themselves, said Bellick.

Scheduled to participate in the debate are Dr. Samuel J. Stratton, medical director of the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency; Dr. Griffith Thomas, a proponent of assisted suicide who has served on the Joint Committee on Biomedical Ethics of the county bar and medical associations; and Melvyn Kirschner, co-chairman of the joint committee and an opponent of assisted suicide.

The forum will be moderated by Ruth Harmer-Carew, an author and founder of the Los Angeles Funeral Society, which was founded in 1957.

The society has as many as 30,000 members in Los Angeles County and contracts with 29 mortuaries to provide dignified, low-cost funeral services.

The forum may include information on power of attorney and determining how far doctors should go to continue a life, Bellick said. Admission is free. The church is at 130 N. Kenwood St. in Glendale.

For more information on the Funeral Society, call (818) 683-3545.