Description
Professor Emeritus Peter A. Goodwin, M.D. talks with Matt Simek about his upbringing and education in South Africa, his move to the Pacific Northwest, his career in family medicine at OHSU, and his involvement with Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. Goodwins family relocated from London to Cape Town when he was a small boy and he recounts the reasons behind the move, his early experiences in Cape Town, and his decision to go into medicine. He talks about his six years on the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Medicine and his eighteen-month internship. After completion of his training, he joined a private practice in Queenstown, and he describes the types of cases and the level of care that was provided to the areas inhabitants. After the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, Goodwin relocated with his family to the United States and, after an internship in Massachusetts, entered private practice in Camas, Washington. He talks about his practice there, his year training in family medicine with Hiram Curry at the Medical University of South Carolina, and his transition into the Department of Family Medicine at OHSU in 1976. A passionate advocate for physician aid-in-dying, Goodwin goes into great detail about his opinions, his experiences, and his role in the passage of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act.