About Us

Our Vision

  • That patients at the end of life would have access to good palliative care which is capable of treating all pain and symptoms

  • That assisted suicide and euthanasia would be prohibited, as they are unnecessary and outside the bounds of ethical medical practice

Our History

When the voters of Oregon approved the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in 1994, many physicians in Oregon responded by forming an organization called the Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation (PCCEF). PCCEF has worked to affirm an ethic that all human life is inherently valuable and affirm that physicians’ roles are to heal illness, alleviate suffering, and provide comfort for the sick and dying. Our members work to ensure appropriate care for their patients, to speak out for the inherent value of human life, and to uphold the time-honored values of the medical profession. More recently, some states have dropped safeguards in laws permitting assisted suicide, allowing other health care professionals to be involved in the process. PCCEF hopes to expand its role to informing and recruiting not just physicians, but other health care professionals to take the pledge to protect patients and our profession.

Our Leadership

William L. Toffler, MD
National Director

  • William L. Toffler, MD is Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University where he practiced the full scope of family medicine and taught medical students and residents for more than 35 years. He is co-founder of the first fully Catholic medical practice in Oregon—Holy Family Catholic Clinic.

    He is also co-founder and National Director of Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation (PCCEF), a non-profit organization that promotes compassionate care for severely ill patients without sanctioning or assisting their suicide. PCCEF physicians affirm an ethic based on the principle that all human life is inherently of value and that the physician’s roles are to heal illness, alleviate suffering, and provide comfort for the sick and dying.

    He is committed to defending the long-standing, medical prohibition against doing harm. He has been a member of the Physicians Resource Council at Focus on the Family for more than 20 years. He has frequently invited to speak about medical ethical issues at both national and international conferences and on US television and radio including NPR, 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, as well as international media in Canada, Australia, the UK and Japan.

    He has 7 children and 25 grandchildren.

Sharon L. Quick, MD, MA
President/Secretary

  • Sharon L. Quick, MD, MA (Bioethics) is retired from work as a pediatric anesthesiologist and critical care physician. She completed residencies in Pediatrics and Anesthesiology at UCLA and fellowships in Pediatric Anesthesiology and Pediatric Critical Care at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. She attained board certification in Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, and Pediatric Critical Care. She has held staff positions at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Children’s Hospital of Seattle. Her Master’s degree in Bioethics was completed in 2022 at Trinity International University.

Linda D. Wrede-Seaman, MD
Vice President

  • Linda D. Wrede-Seaman, MD, FAAFP, FACEP, FAAHPM is triple board-certified and achieved fellowship status in the fields of family medicine, emergency medicine, and hospice & palliative medicine. For 40 years she balanced work in primary care with publishing, teaching, and consulting. Dr. Seaman's passion is in 'front lines' medicine and program development. She introduced core curriculum for palliative care as lecturer/faculty to Pacific Northwest University Health Sciences Center in Yakima, Washington, in 2010. She was recipient of the Washington State Hospice & Palliative Care Organization’s Stu Farber Excellence Award in 2022. In 2009, she received the Commonwealth Honorary Alumni Award for innovative work in the field of palliative medicine and advocacy for patients worldwide for better end of life care from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She has been on CMDA’s Northwest Advisory Council since 2022. She is CEO of Intellicard, Inc. and author and publisher of practical handbooks for palliative care & four emergency medicine quick reference cards.

    Education:

    Undergraduate: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

    Medical School: University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, Kentucky with additional post graduate year as a student fellow in pathology

    Residency: post-graduate study years at the University of California-Los Angeles, Harbor General Hospital, Los Angeles, California

    Background: Dr. Seaman was a hospice medical director for a decade and served two 3- year terms on the Board of Directors with an additional year as an officer of the Executive Committee for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the only professional organization representing physicians in the developing field of hospice and palliative medicine. She helped create and critique curriculum development and authored practical books to aid practicing health care professionals serving to improve end of life care. She was on the steering committee for the Washington State End of Life Coalition and was an advisor on the Pediatric Palliative Care project with Children's Hospital in Seattle. During the last decade she developed a system of care to optimize pain and other distressing symptom management in the home care arena. This resulted in published pocket-sized books that have become an educational tool for health care personnel in the field of pain management, hospice, and palliative care. It is now being

    used internationally and nationally in cancer centers, long term care facilities and home care/hospice programs around the world.

    In 2008, she contracted with King County-Seattle Public Health Department to develop algorithmic models of care for palliative care assessment and management for individuals involved in a pandemic influenza setting.

    Dr. Seaman also served as the medical director for Yakima Neighborhood Health Services, a local non federally funded community health clinic whose mission is to serve the poor and disadvantaged. She practiced comprehensive family medicine at that location. During that time, a chronic pain management program was developed that served over two hundred clients. She developed guidelines and medication agreements for patients that embraced the state of Washington Department of Health’s documentation guidelines for chronic pain. She was instrumental in overseeing the first successful JACHO survey for ambulatory clinics at YNHS in July 2000. The work in pain management was presented as an example of ongoing CQI (continuous quality improvement) activities and received national attention from JACHO.

    She served as a consultant for those interested in establishing palliative care programs and lectured extensively. She was a charter member and has served on the Washington State Medical Association’s End of Life Consensus Coalition and represented the WSMA’s House of Delegates for two decades. She served a 3-year appointment on the WSMA's Judicial Council, which serves in an advisory capacity to WSMA on biomedical ethics.

    *Dr. Seaman has published several pocket-sized books in the field of hospice & palliative care. Symptom Management Algorithms, A Handbook for Palliative Care, 4th ed, 2019, (ISBN 978888411225) which is being used nationally and internationally to guide and augment the practice of health care professionals in the field of hospice and palliative care. There is an article in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, Vol 16, No 3, May/June 1999, which describes the model of care and summarizes the quality assurance activities done for 5 years while serving as the hospice medical director for Providence Health Care in Yakima, Washington. She also completed is a similar book which embodies the work done with Children's Hospital in Seattle’s pilot project on Palliative Care for Children with life threatening illnesses: Pediatric Pain and Symptom Management Algorithms for Palliative Care., 1st edition, ISBN 1-888411 15 5.

    Two other articles of interest completed & published on "Optimizing Opioid Management in the Elderly" in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, May 2000, and a chapter for Primary Care Clinics in North America on "Management of Emergent Conditions in Palliative Care."

Kenneth R. Stevens, MD
Emeritus President

  • Kenneth R. Stevens, MD is the President Emeritus of PCCEF.

    He is Professor Emeritus and former chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon. He is also a prolific writer, and past president of PCCEF. His publication (Emotional and Psychological Effects of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia on Participating Physicians) is a significant contribution to the literature.