As part of a promotional interview in The Atlantic, Dr Jonathan Moreno was asked to nominate organisations and individuals for a “bioethics hall of fame”. His selection gives outsiders an insight into main currents in American bioethics thinking

Bioethicist Jonathan Moreno, of the University of Pennsylvania, has just published another book, The Body Politic, about “biopolitics” and the cultural, political and societal underpinnings of biotechnology. He is one of the most prominent commentators on bioethics in the US. As part of a promotional interview in The Atlantic, Dr Moreno was asked to nominate organisations and individuals for a “bioethics hall of fame”. His selection gives outsiders an insight into main currents in American bioethics thinking: 

Organisations: “The two pioneering bioethics organizations were The Hastings Center, a free-standing think tank in New York that was founded in 1969, and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, which started in 1972… At the risk of sounding self-serving I’d add the University of Pennsylvania.”

Individuals: “Penn’s president, Amy Gutmann, is a political philosopher who chairs President Obama’s bioethics commission; my new colleague Zeke Emanuel is a philosopher and physician who worked on health care reform in the White House; and my old friend Art Caplan is easily the most visible person in the field.”

Atlantic, Oct 7; hat tip to Summer Johnson McGee

Michael Cook
bioethics