Do No Harm: Religious Resistance to Assisted Suicide Laws 

Assisted suicide laws—also advertised as medical aid in dying laws—are slowly expanding in the United States. The practice is now legal in thirteen states, with over a dozen state legislatures poised to consider legalization in 2027. 

The practice of assisted suicide raises a host of concerns, particularly among disability rights advocates and medical professionals who object to participating in deliberately ending the life of another person. Becket, is representing several Catholic orders of nuns, other catholic health care providers, and Muslim health care providers in challenges to new assisted suicide laws in New York and Illinois.

Join us as we host a panel discussion in partnership with Becket that will explore this litigation and discuss the medical, ethical, and policy concerns surrounding these laws.

Laura Wolk Slavis is Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, where she has litigated in federal trial and appellate courts since 2022.

Before joining Becket, Laura was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focusing on complex commercial litigation, administrative law, and constitutional law. She clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Thomas M. Hardiman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Judge Janice Rogers Brown on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

She received her J.D. summa cum laude from Notre Dame Law School, where she was Federal Courts editor of the Law Review, and her B.A. in psychology from Swarthmore College.

Rachel K. Barkley is Director of the National Center’s Able Americans program and Executive Director of the Alliance for Opportunity, a multi-state coalition advancing an anti-poverty and upward mobility agenda. She has a decade of experience connecting Members of Congress, think tank leaders, corporate stakeholders, state legislators, governors, and advocacy professionals around shared policy goals.

Rachel previously served as External Relations Senior Advisor to Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Director of Outreach for the House Republican Conference Chair, and Director of Coalitions and State Outreach for the Republican Study Committee. She began her career at State Policy Network and in 2019 founded RK Barkley Consulting, advising technology, financial services, and nonprofit clients on coalition development and strategy. 

Her own experience as a quadriplegic following surgery for a rare spinal cord tumor has shaped her approach to health care, disability, and safety net reform.

Louis Brown is Executive Director of Christ Medicus Foundation (CMF), where he leads efforts to advance medical conscience and religious freedom rights and to offer pro-life health and wellness programs to individuals, families, and Catholic employers nationwide.

An attorney for over 15 years, Louis served as a political appointee at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, becoming Principal Advisor for Civil Rights to the Director of the Office for Civil Rights, where he worked to enforce conscience protections in health care. He previously served as legislative counsel to a U.S. Congressman on federal health care law and policy.

Louis is a co-founder and board member of the Catholic Health Care Leadership Alliance and sits on the boards of two other Catholic pro-life health care entities. He has taught a course on human dignity and religious freedom in health care at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law, writes the Washington Insider column for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, and has published in First Things, The Hill, Public Discourse, and National Review. He received his J.D. from Howard University School of Law.