Wesley J. Smith’s Remarks at the Human Life Review’s 50th Anniversary Gala

The Human Life Review held their 50th Anniversary Gala on November 13, 2024. Wesley J. Smith was invited to give tribute to Nat Hentoff and Rita Marker. Following are his remarks.

Thank you all for being here at this important event and thank you, Maria and Anne, for inviting me to say a few words.

You know, as I pondered what I would say tonight, I thought about what it is that people with excellence in advocacy — what are their attributes. I came up with five.

One is integrity. Two, know your stuff. Three, be unremitting, never quit. Four, don’t be expedient. That’s a hard one sometimes — don’t be expedient. And five, have a willingness to sacrifice.

And I have to say the Human Life Review epitomizes each and every one of those five attributes. And so do two former defenders of life, Great Defenders of Life, that I’ve been asked to speak a bit about today, Nat Hentoff and Rita Marker.

The late great Nat Hentoff was my friend. I don’t remember exactly how and when it came about, but he would call me when he was writing about euthanasia for quotes, and at some point, I came to New York and he wanted to have dinner, and it began a friendship that was mostly conducted over the phone. But anytime I was here in New York City, he and I would get together. He was such an iconoclast, in addition to being a jazz expert — internationally renowned in that regard. He called himself a Jewish, atheist, leftwing, civil-libertarian prolifer. Accordingly, his work castigated legalized abortion, partial birth terminations, unethical experimentation on disabled babies, health care rationing, the intentional dehydration of Terri Schiavo, euthanasia, and other life disaffirming issues and policies that reared their ugly heads over the last thirty or so years of his writing career.

I think Nat deserved the Pulitzer. But he ruined his opportunities because he took those positions. And eventually because of those positions he took, he lost his 50-year writing gig at the Village Voice, he was fired, in essence, from the Washington Post, and ended up excluded and marginalized in what we now might call the mainstream media. While the mainstream viewed Nat’s human exceptionalism advocacy as an embarrassing anomaly, prolifers received it as sweet incense. Nat’s ongoing apologia compelled the Human Life Foundation to name him its Great Defender Life in 2005.

Nat Hentoff epitomized the power of life. So, thank you my wonderful Jewish, atheist, civil-libertarian, left-wing prolifer friend. We will not see your like again.

Post Script: If I might add a brief point of personal privilege: None of us can judge the state of another’s soul. And as others who knew Nat have stated, I never fully believed the atheist part of the iconoclastic self-description. I teased him gently about that whenever I was with him, and his eyes would just twinkle. As I think back on our all-too-brief conversations, as I reflect on what he stood for and his shimmering integrity, I still don’t.

My great friend and mentor, Rita Marker, a Great Defender of Life in 2008, passed away two weeks ago. I don’t know if any of you knew Rita. Yes, Rita was one of the greats of anti-euthanasia advocacy. She lived to be 83. And she died after a long illness.

Rita was in Europe in the mid-1980s, and out of curiosity attended an International Right-to-Die convention. I always think of her as a horse smelling smoke and rearing, because what she heard so alarmed her that she and her husband and soulmate Mike Marker formed the non-profit International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force, which was later renamed the Patients Rights Council. Along with a loyal staff, Rita began decades of work pushing back against that dark agenda.

Not every great public policy activist becomes a household name. Rita was not interested in notoriety or fame. Effectiveness was her lone star, that and personal sacrifice. For as long as she was physically able, she gave all she had to the cause. She had stage fright, but she spoke countless times to large and small venues. She was terrified of flying, yet she traveled the world speaking against euthanasia and in favor of compassionate care.

Rita was a devout Catholic, a daily communicant. But she insisted that the task force opposition to assisted suicide be focused through a human rights and secular lens.

Rita did not have a professional degree until she decided that she could be most effective by becoming a lawyer. She attended a mail-in law school, while still working full-time for the task force, and passed the California Bar Exam, the nation’s most difficult, on the first try.

Rita’s life was full. She is survived by 7 children, 29 grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren.

So rest in peace, Rita. You fought the good fight. You finished the race. You kept the faith. You served your purpose. And the world is so much better for you having been in it.