Ventura, CA - Should patients with a terminal illness have the right to decide when to end their lives? This controversial topic will be the focus of a free Ethics in Healthcare presentation Community Memorial Health System is holding on Thursday, April 16, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., at the Museum of Ventura County in Ventura.

Featured speakers are Jim Hornstein, M.D., CMHS’s Chair of the Bioethics Committee, and family physician moderatesa panel presentation which includes William Rajala, M.D., an internist and medical director of Assisted Home Hospice, and Debbie Weinstein, an emergency medical specialist and volunteer for Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit organization that offers free consultation, planning resourcesand guidance to patients considering ending their lives.

This presentation is being held in recognition of National Healthcare Decision Day, and comes months after California lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 128 and if passed the bill seeks to legalize aid-in-dying.While all sensitive citizens should support compassionate and dignified care for patients through the end of their lives, should this care include the option to select when?Join us for a conversation on the pros and cons of physician-assisted suicide, a topicthat touches on many personal and deeply heldbeliefs such as the meaning of life, death, suffering and the preservation of human dignity.

Registration is free but reservations are required. For more information or to register visit www.cmhshealth.org/rsvp or call Brown Paper Ticket 800/838-3006.

Future scheduled Speaker Series topics include: Neurological Diseases of Aging on April 21 in Oxnard; State of the Health System Address on May 7 at Ventura County Museum; Update on Management of Brain Tumors on May 12 at CMH.

Community Memorial Health System is a not-for-profit health system, which is comprised of Community Memorial Hospital, Ojai Valley Community Hospital, and 12 family-practice health centers entitled Centers for Family Health. The health system is located in Ventura County, California.