African American Bioethics

Edmund D. Pellegrino is the leading physician-philosopher of medicine in the United States. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he was educated at St. John's University and received his M.D. from New York University in 1944. From 1959 to 1966 he was professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, where he was involved in introducing a medical-humanities curriculum. He then held a number of administrative positions: academic vice-president and dean of the School of Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1966--73), chancellor and vice-president for health affairs at the University of Tennessee (1973--75), president of the Yale-New Haven Medical Center (1975--78), president of the Catholic University of America (1978--82), and director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University (1983-89). He is currently director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics at Georgetown University.

During his career, Pellegrino has remained extremely active in professional societies for the medical humanities. He has also been a prolific author of medical articles, including articles on medical ethics and medical humanities, and he has written two books on the philosophy of medicine. Pellegrino is best known, however, as a dynamic lecturer to medical school faculties, medical students, and the general public on a wide variety of topics relevant to medical ethics and the philosophy of medicine. Although no books have been written about Pellegrino, the spring 1990 issue of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy is devoted to a discussion of his philosophy.

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