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Tom Shakely

Guest Contributor

Tom Shakely serves as Chief Engagement Officer at Americans United for Life, a national leader in advancing life-affirming law and policy.

Tom previously served as executive director of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, whose Crisis Lifeline serves patients and families facing denial of basic care and which strives to awaken the conscience on human dignity and bioethical issues. He is a member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, the Knights of Columbus, and Democrats for Life, as well as a Sons of the American Revolution life member, a National Review Institute Washington fellow, and a Leonine Forum fellow. Tom serves as a board member for the Mount Nittany Conservancy as well as the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia, and is a past member of Archbishop Charles J. Chaput’s Archdiocesan Pastoral Council in Philadelphia.

He holds a B.A. in political science from the Pennsylvania State University and a certificate from the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Health Care Ethics.

Latest Research & News

  • Update: COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates and Abortion-Derived Cell Lines | September 30, 2020

    To view this chart as a PDF, see: COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates and Abortion-Derived Cell Lines   Updated March 3, 2021   Accurate information about the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines is essential, especially because many proposed candidates use newer molecular technologies for production of a viral vaccine. One concern regarding the ethical assessment of […]

  • A Visual Aid to Viral Infection and Vaccine Production | June 15, 2020

    This is Issue 1 in CLI’s On Science. To view this report as a PDF, see: A Visual Aid to Viral Infection and Vaccine Production   Updated November 2020   Introduction As a result of the rapid spread of the new coronavirus technically known as SARS-CoV-2, the United States and other governments have begun crash […]

  • The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Ethics of Triage | March 26, 2020

    by R. J. Snell, Ph.D. This paper can be viewed as a pdf here: The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Ethics of Triage   As the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Italy, many hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, necessitating difficult triage decisions that can seem like choosing who lives and who dies. In the United States, already […]

  • Pro-Life Topics for Lawmakers Regarding Coronavirus | March 25, 2020

    This is Issue 43 in CLI’s On Point Series. To view this report as a PDF, see: On Point 43 Pro-Life Topics for Lawmakers Regarding Coronavirus.   Abortion advocates have found a new ally—COVID-19.   During this intensely stressful time, the vast majority of Americans are focused on protecting their health and the health of […]

  • “Unresponsive Wakefulness,” Explained Simply | May 15, 2018

    It’s a simple reality that many patients who are not actively dying are nonetheless described as facing “end of life” issues, often simply due to physical or cognitive disabilities.   This is particularly true for patients diagnosed with “Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome,” the terminology doctors and patient advocates increasingly prefer to the more pejorative “Persistent Vegetative […]

  • ‘Living Wills’ Should Foster a Patient’s Will to Live | March 6, 2018

    In late 2017 Italy’s Senate approved, in a 180-71 vote, legislation permitting patient-created Advance Directives. The law endorses a form of Advance Directives so permissive that Italians won’t simply be able to outline their health care wishes prior to possible incapacity, but in fact will be able to hasten their own deaths. Tragically, this appears […]