Ludwig Amadeus Minelli (5 December 1932 – 29 November 2025), leader of Dignitas assisted suicide organization

 The Washington Post has the story

Ludwig Minelli, founder of leading assisted suicide group, ends his life at 92.  Dignitas, which Mr. Minelli founded, has helped thousands of people to die, some from countries where assisted suicide is illegal.  By Maham Javaid

 "Ludwig Minelli, who became a leader of the death-with-dignity movement as the founder of Dignitas, a Swiss organization with more than 10,000 members that provides and advocates for access to assisted suicide, died Saturday, ending his life through the process he helped promote. He was 92 and would have celebrated his 93rd birthday on Friday.

...

"Mr. Minelli, a lawyer specializing in human rights, was the general secretary of Dignitas, which since 1998 has helped thousands of people from around the world, including from countries where assisted suicide is illegal, to die. 

...

"Mr. Minelli and his group claimed responsibility for major milestones in the field of assisted death. In 2011 the European Court of Human Rights confirmed the right and freedom of a competent individual to decide on the manner and the time of their own end of life. In 2022, the German Federal Constitutional Court declared a law that made providing professional assistance in suicide impossible in Germany was unconstitutional. The same year, Austria also revoked a blanket prohibition on assisted suicide.

"In recent years, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have shifted their stance on assisted dying.

"Dignitas has participated in nearly 4,200 accompanied suicides since Mr. Minelli founded the group in 1998, the group reported in 2024. More than a third of those people lived in Germany, and there were over 600 people each from France and Britain. The group says it has more than 10,000 members. "

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Here is the statement/obituary from Dignitas: Passing of a pioneer and warrior 

Scientists and policy makers with feet of clay

 A recent article in The Lancet talks about the checkered career of the late James Watson (1928-2025), who participated in great science (the DNA double helix), wrote about it in popular terms that had some vulgar elements (The Double Helix), and later in life had troubling, unscientific thoughts on race and gender. This made me think of yesterday's post, which touched on the Statement from the American Economic Association concerning Larry Summers. 

Here's the Lancet piece: 

James D Watson: a cautionary tale by Philip Ball  

It begins:

"There was always going to be a complex reckoning in the obituaries of James D Watson (1928–2025), the American geneticist who co-discovered the structure of DNA. For many years, Watson was one of the most influential figures in modern biology—Director, then President and Chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York, USA, from 1968 to 2007, and the key motive force behind the Human Genome Project. He was also notorious for his attitudes towards women, especially Rosalind Franklin (1920–58), and for his comments on race, which led to a precipitous fall from grace in the past two decades. Watson enjoyed playing the role of provocateur, proudly claiming that his Chicago heritage made him inclined to speak his mind frankly no matter who it upset. The popular image of Watson now is of a great scientist who held controversial views. That, however, lets everyone too easily off the hook." 

 And here are the two concluding paragraphs:

"But this is also a cautionary tale about how science comports itself. Watson's 2007 interview was hardly a revelation to those who knew him; he had been making bigoted comments for years. In the Esquire interview in that same year he said “some anti-Semitism is justified. Just like some anti-Irish feeling is justified”. And yet there had been a continual turning of a blind eye: he was seen as “outspoken”, “colourful”, and “controversial”. In Watson's heyday, the scientific community tended to indulge such behaviour so long as the perpetrator was sufficiently eminent. Even after the disastrous interview in The Sunday Times, some considered Watson's reputation should shield him from repercussions. When a talk at the Science Museum in London was cancelled in 2007, Richard Dawkins complained about “the hounding, by what can only be described as an illiberal and intolerant ‘thought police’, of one of the most distinguished scientists of our time”. It can sometimes look as though the biggest crime in science is to create an unseemly fuss, especially on a topic deemed “political”. That Elon Musk, who is a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), gave a Nazi salute, or that Stephen Hawking FRS attended soirées on Jeffrey Epstein's private island, are seen primarily as sources of embarrassment best passed over quickly.
 

"Perhaps times are changing. When Watson turned up at the event marking the 75th anniversary of Schrödinger's What Is Life? in Dublin, Ireland, and was given an impromptu toast by the organisers, there were dumbfounded glances all around the tables at the thought that we were expected to raise our glasses. Scientists are starting to confront difficult behaviour—but we still have some way to go before acknowledging that it can taint not only the practice of science but also its substance too. "

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 We have had to think about fine figures with feet of clay at least since Daniel (33-34) interpreted for King  Nebuchadnezzar his dream about a statue with "a head of fine gold, its breast and its arms were of silver, its belly and thighs were of copper.  Its legs were of iron, and its feet were partly of iron and partly of clay."

 

AEA Survey of hiring plans of U.S. Economics Departments (and an unrelated unprecedented AEA announcement about Larry Summers)

 Here's the latest survey of the job market for new PhD economists:

To: Members of the American Economic Association
From: AEA Committee on the Job Market: John Cawley (chair), Elisabeth “Bitsy” Perlman, Al 
Roth, Peter Rousseau, Wendy Stock, and Stephen Wu
Date: December 1, 2025
Re: Survey of hiring plans of U.S. Economics Departments 

 

 

 

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Also on the AEA website is this unprecedented announcement:

    Announcement      December 2, 2025

Statement from the American Economic Association

"The American Economic Association (AEA) has accepted Lawrence H. Summers' voluntary resignation from membership and, pursuant to the AEA's Policies, Procedures, and Code of Professional Conduct, has imposed a lifetime ban on his membership. In addition, effective immediately, the AEA has imposed a lifetime prohibition on Mr. Summers' attending, speaking at, or otherwise participating in AEA-sponsored events or activities, including serving in any editorial or refereeing capacity for AEA journals. The AEA condemns Mr. Summers' conduct, as reflected in publicly reported communications, as fundamentally inconsistent with its standards of professional integrity and with the trust placed in mentors within the economics profession. Consistent with longstanding AEA practices and to protect the integrity and confidentiality of AEA processes, the AEA will not comment further on individual matters or the specific considerations underlying this determination.

The AEA is committed to upholding the highest standards of professional conduct and to fostering a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for all members of the economics community.  The AEA affirms its expectation that all members adhere to the AEA Code of Professional Conduct and the AEA Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation, and remains dedicated to maintaining professional environments in which economists of all backgrounds can participate fully, and with dignity and respect."

 
 

Interview with Joel Mokyr: "I'm Not Sure Democracy Will Survive"

 Joel Mokyr, the Dutch-Israeli-American 2025 Nobel Laureate in Economics for his work on the history of technology, is interviewed in Haaretz.  He's worried about democracy, but still optimistic about technology.

'I'm Not Sure Democracy Will Survive': Israeli 2025 Nobel Laureate Fears for the West's Future  by Guy Rolnik

“I can envision a world where democracy and the legal institutions we know and cherish do not survive, while technological progress continues. And some argue that this may really be what we need, because the greatest technological challenge we face today is climate change – and it's very hard right now to claim that democracies are handling it well. By contrast, China has been manufacturing electric cars endlessly, they've been manufacturing solar panels, they've been addressing climate change."  

Would you want your daughters to live in a technologically advanced but undemocratic world?

 
"No, but I'm not sure I can prevent it. Democracy is a modern product. Most societies in the past, including those that produced Newton, Galileo and Spinoza, were not democratic societies. The notion of democracy never occurred to them. This idea was born – or at least revived – in the Enlightenment, in the 18th and 19th centuries, and even then, it took many years for democracy to become the most common form of government. 
"Democracy isn't something that keeps evolving – there have been very serious setbacks. Between the two world wars, many countries pulled back from democracy, putting in place some form of dictatorship. Even France, which protected its democracy – as soon as the Germans arrived it all collapsed. So democracy is a fragile system. I'm not sure democracy will survive, but I'm sure technological advances will."

...

“ How worried are you about the future of Israel? 

 
"This is a difficult question. The Middle East is a huge graveyard for prophecies. Compared to the Israel you were raised in during the 1950s and 1960s, its geopolitical situation is better than ever. The threat from Arab countries, which was very real in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, is practically gone. Almost all Arab countries have accepted its existence. The countries hostile to us are, in fact, Muslim non-Arab countries – which is a kind of sad progress. 
"The big problem – the huge gorilla in the room – is what nobody addresses: Israel needs to learn that it cannot succeed in doing what South Africa tried and failed to do. You cannot live indefinitely as an occupying army without morally destroying the country from within."

Lucky By Design: book talk by Judd Kessler tomorrow

 

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, December 2, from 3:30–5 PM: Wharton Professor Judd Kessler will be visiting Stanford to deliver a talk about his new book, Lucky by Design. 

 

Location: Gunn Building (SIEPR), Koret-Taube Conference Center (KT130)

Note: A free copy of Lucky by Design will be available for each of the first 100 attendees!

 

RSVP

 

More about the event and Lucky by Design:

Wharton professor Judd Kessler discusses his new book, “Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want.”

 

Judd pulls back the curtain on the hidden markets that determine who gets what in everyday life. Unlike familiar markets that you might learn about in your economics class — where what we get depends on how much we’re willing to pay — hidden markets do not rely on prices: you can’t buy your way into a better position. Instead, what you receive hinges on the rules by which the market operates, and the choices you make in them.

 

What are the tricks for getting reservations at the hottest restaurants, live-event tickets, job offers, and spots in elite preschools and selective colleges? What about finding a soulmate on a dating app or receiving a life-saving organ transplant? How can policymakers design these markets better?

 

Judd has spent a career studying and designing these very markets. Now, he reveals insights about how they work, how to maneuver in them, and how to tip the scales in your favor.

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Earlier post about this book:

Monday, August 11, 2025  Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want, by Judd Kessler

 

 

Women in Thoracic Surgery,

 The NYT reports on the second annual meeting of Women in Thoracic Surgery, a group for the less than 10 percent of heart and lung surgeons in the United States who are women, one of the smallest percentages of any surgical specialty. 

Female Cardiothoracic Surgeons, Unlocking the Male Fortress
Less than 10 percent of heart and lung surgeons in the United States are women.  By Elisabeth Bumiller 

 "Women make up about 30 percent of surgeons in the United States overall, and a little less than 40 percent of all physicians.

...

"“Cardiothoracic surgery had a reputation, which is fading but probably not gone, as the toughest, meanest and the most macho specialty,” said Dr. [Leslie] Kohman, 76...

...

"The women say the good news today is that some 500 women have been certified as thoracic surgeons in the United States, although there are less than that in active practice — still, enough for them to hold a conference. (The terms “thoracic” and “cardiothoracic” are used interchangeably to refer to doctors who operate on the organs in the chest cavity.) 

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My sense, incidentally, is that cardiothoracic surgery is not a growing specialty, as a lot of the work that they used to do is now done by interventional cardiologists, who can access the heart by threading devices through blood vessels. 

When I last studied the thoracic surgery fellowship match, it  was because (unlike the resident match) there were no couples participating in it, so it could serve as a control for  that aspect of the resident match (this was in the paper  Roth, A. E. and Elliott Peranson, "The Redesign of the Matching Market for American Physicians: Some Engineering Aspects of Economic Design," American Economic Review, 89, 4, September, 1999, 748-780.

Today the fellowship match for thoracic surgery is run jointly with vascular surgery.

 

Gift to deceased donor family (generous ex-post, but illegal ex-ante)

 What is generous ex-post but illegal ex-ante?

Cleveland.com has the story: 

Bernie Kosar gives large check to donor’s family days after life-saving liver transplant   By  Molly Walsh

"CLEVELAND, Ohio — Former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar marked Thanksgiving by donating $25,000 to the family of the organ donor who saved his life, just days after he was discharged from University Hospitals following a successful liver transplant."