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NRL News
Thomas J. Marzen, RIP
“He was a member of St. Joseph University Parish and was active in the pro-life movement.” -- From an obituary in the Terre Haute (Indiana) News I received the news that my friend of 25 years had passed away while I was on vacation. Although his health had been perilous for many years, Tom’s death was still a shock. In spite of his increasingly fragile condition, as general counsel for the National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent and Disabled, Tom soldiered on, indefatigable in his devotion to those who could not protect themselves. Tom served as general counsel to Americans United for Life in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1984 he became the general counsel of the National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent and Disabled, which has been in the forefront of the struggle against legal euthanasia. The National Legal Center coordinated the briefing in the crucial 1997 cases of Washington v. Glucksberg and Vacco v. Quill in which the Supreme Court held that there is no right to assisted suicide under the U.S. Constitution. Tom was also the primary author of the hugely influential law review article, “Suicide: A Constitutional Right?” which the Supreme Court cited in its two 1997 decisions. Unquestionably, he was one of the nation’s foremost authorities on euthanasia in general, assisted suicide in particular. A mutual friend, Richard Doerflinger, tellingly observed that “Tom became a linchpin figure in promoting mutual understanding and collaboration between the pro-life and disability rights movements in defending vulnerable human life. The entire movement against legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide would today be an incomparably weaker and poorer influence in our society if not for the work he did and the coalitions he helped build.” I remember endless fascinating conversations with Tom about infanticide extending back more than 25 years. The issue of the medical neglect of babies born with disabilities reared its ugly head in a public way with “Baby Doe.” In that tragic 1982 case, a newborn child was starved to death because the little one was born with Down syndrome. Tom, along with James Bopp, who was and is president of the National Legal Center, fought tenaciously to save this little one. In the years to come, Tom would continue to be their tireless advocate. As noted above, he was best known for his work on euthanasia cases. Among the many articles Tom wrote for National Right to Life News was an incisive analysis of the Robert Wendland case, “Pressing the Euthanasia Envelope.” As he explained, Wendland v. Wendland “represent[ed] a major step down the slippery slope in which the logic of decisions reached for an entirely different category of disabled people is used to justify the removal of food and fluids from a man who has a severe disability but is clearly conscious” (www.nrlc.org/news/2001/NRL06/marzen.html). By the time I joined National Right to Life in 1981, Tom was already an experienced pro-life litigator. Tom was to become a real mentor to me. I remember one time when I interviewed Tom and Burke Balch, who directs NRLC’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics, about Supreme Court oral arguments they had just heard. In layman’s language they succinctly explained a bewilderingly complex case. Many was the time I’d call Tom, put on the tape recorder, and just sit back and drink from the deep well of his knowledge and insight. No matter how convoluted a case might be, Tom could get to the core in a way that allowed me—and therefore the readers of NRL News—to understand what was at stake. “Active in the pro-life movement” might qualify as the understatement of the year. Tom dedicated his life to our cause. He was a model of faithfulness to those of us privileged to know him. Like so many others, I will greatly miss him. |