"Because Robert Powell Lived ...".

Editor's note. The following remarks were delivered June 29 at the dedication of National Right to Life's Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics.

It was my great privilege to work with Robert Powell for a number of years in the 80s and 90s as he led the National Right to Life Committee's fight against the legalization of euthanasia and denial of lifesaving medical treatment to older people and people with disabilities.

It was my pleasure to be able to call him a friend - - to enjoy his wit, and appreciate his steadfastness and interest and concern for my family. I could well reminisce, as others have done, about the personal side of Robert Powell.

As director of the center which now has the honor of bearing his name, however, it falls to me to talk very briefly about the more public Robert Powell, and the enormous contribution he made to protecting the lives of the vulnerable.

His own personal story of the pessimism and discrimination he faced in his own fight for life, and the compelling way he so often told it, served to educate many in and outside of the pro-life movement. He drew on his own experiences to write articles, give workshops, testify before congressional committees, and talk with reporters. It also informed his careful work on the "Will to Live," which became National Right to Life's alternative to the "living will," a pro-life advance directive designed in different forms for every state that allows people to say that they want food, fluids, and lifesaving treatment. He played a key role both in drafting and in advocating it.

He served as an important liaison to disability rights groups often skeptical about the right to life movement. He had an undeniable record as a disability rights advocate who worked for access to public buildings and passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, whose signing at the White House he attended. This and his personal warmth broke through to many who at first took umbrage at his position with our organization.

He was a founder of Galveston Right to Life, president of Texas Right to Life, delegate from Texas to the National Right to Life Committee Board, and then, of course, our vice president from 1991 until his death.