Dr. Eugene D. Robin; Patients’ Rights Advocate

Dr. Eugene D. Robin, 80, a medical researcher and advocate of patients’ rights to determine their own medical care. Robin wrote “Matters of Life and Death,” widely used by patients trying to determine the benefits and drawbacks of treatment. He also wrote a medical column for the Press-Enterprise of Riverside and the San Francisco Examiner from 1986 to 1990. Robin was born Aug. 23, 1919, in Detroit. He earned bachelor’s, master’s and medical degrees from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Robin served as president of the National Thoracic Society from 1970 to 1971. He was acting chairman of the Stanford University School of Medicine from 1976 to 1977 and acting chairman of the university’s department of physiology from 1977 to 1986. Robin, who lived in the Northern California community of Trinidad, died March 8 of cancer.