disability issues for the Miami Herald. They adopted a Russian brother and sister, Joe and Katey, in 1996. Involvement in assisted-dying debate While working as counsel at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery from 1995 to 1997, he filed amicus briefs and served as the attorney of record to protect the rights of individuals who were terminally ill and who wished assistance to end their lives. Batavia served as co-counsel on the brief amici on behalf of Autonomy, Inc. in the Supreme Court of the United States case of Oregon v. Ashcroft in 2002, and in the appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He also served as attorney of record on the brief amici in Washington v. Glucksberg, and Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996, as well as on the brief amici for Krischer v. McIver in the Supreme Court of Florida in 1997. University teaching Batavia joined Florida International University (FIU) in September 1997 as an associate professor of health care law and policy (1997-2002) in the School of Policy and Management, where his main office was located on North Miami's Biscayne campus. There, he continued to publish articles and the book Independent Living: A Viable Option for Long-Term Care, which described three models of care for persons with disabilities. Autonomy, Inc. In 2002, he became president and cofounded with Hugh Gallagher, Autonomy, Inc., a not-for-profit organization to represent people with disabilities who wanted choices and control over their lives, including the choice to end it for persons with disabilities who were terminally ill. Death Batavia died at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida, on January 6, 2003, from sepsis, at age 45. His memorial service was held a week later at Beth Israel Memorial Chapel in Delray Beach. He was awarded tenure and posthumously promoted to full professor in January 2003. Memoirs In 2015, fourteen chapters of Batavia's unfinished memoir were discovered on a hard drive. The family completed the memoir, which Batavia had titled Wisdom from a Chair. In the preface, Batavia wrote his life's mission: My mission in this world is to try to ensure that all people, including people with disabilities, have greater choices in and control over their lives. I believe that achieving this mission will make the world a slightly better place than it was before I got here. p. xvii References External links The Americans with