Portland State Magazine Winter 2016

12 pORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE winter 2016 Nearly one in six Americans now lives in a state where assisted death is possible for qualified individuals. Peg Sandeen MSW ’01, PhD ’13 knows this fact better than most. She is director of the Portland-based Death with Dignity National Center. Her work with the center and as adjunct faculty in PSU’s School of Social Work has had a profound effect on how our nation looks at end-of-life choices. Sandeen assists state legislators around the nation, helping them to craft, promote and pass laws that allow terminally ill patients to end their lives. California’s death with dignity law, which passed in October, is based on Oregon’s 1997 law. Vermont passed its law in 2013 and a death with dignity act was passed in Washington in 2008. Courts in Montana have been safeguarding physician-assisted death since 2009. “At the core of social work are autonomy and self-determination, dignity and the worth of the person. I believe that death with dignity represents all those things,” she says. Sandeen, 49, acknowledges the opposition some people have to her work and points out that safeguards are built into each state’s law. “We make sure that doctors, pharmacists, and caregivers know they have an opt-out clause. No one has to participate if they object.” The Oregon Sports Lottery Graduate Scholarship helped support Sandeen during her time at PSU. “I was a working mom. My daughter was in sixth grade when I came here. Having the scholarship support was incredibly important. “I’m so privileged to be in my position,” says Sandeen. “I go to work every day and support my family doing the thing I’m most passionate about. I’m a policy-focused social worker at the core, and there aren’t that many jobs for people like me.” Portland State felt like home for German native Vera Sell MIM ’06 soon after she enrolled in the master’s program in international management. She chose the program after moving to Portland with her husband, a new Intel hire. “There was lots of diversity in age and work experience, and a lot of international students. And I loved the whirlwind of the program— one year, full-time,” remembers Sell. She credits PSU with giving her the confidence to move forward in her career. “PSU does a really good job of connecting students to the com- munity. I used to think I couldn’t work in high tech because I’m not an engineer. By exposing me to careers in high tech, PSU took those fears away.” Peg Sandeen Vera Sell death with dignity advocate volunteer “At the core of social work are autonomy and self-determination, dignity and the worth of the person.”