Neglected Contributions: The Activist Roots of American Bioethics

Lunch at 12:00pm • Talk at 12:10pm In this talk Professor Robert Baker will put forward a history of the birth of bioethics, shedding light on the actions of many unsung dissenters and whistleblowers. These include African American civil rights leaders, Jewish Americans harboring Holocaust memories, feminists, and physicians and healthcare professionals who were veterans of 20th century wars. He will highlight the roles these key figures played in the shaping of contemporary bioethics. In 2024, Robert Baker, PhD received the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Society for Bioethics in Humanities. In addition to founding the Bioethics Program at Clarkson University-Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, he served as consultant to the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities committee that developed an ethics code for healthcare ethics consultants. He is a member of the editorial board of Bioethics and has written, edited, or co-edited over a dozen books. Professor Baker is the author of The Structure of Moral Revolutions, and Before Bioethics.