The center's clinical ethics personnel engage in scholarship focusing on the practice of clinical ethics consultation as well as on the challenging theoretical questions that arise in the clinical context. Our team writes on best practices for clinical ethics consultation services using empirical and conceptual approaches with the hope that our work can contribute to the evolution of our young field. We also seek to develop robust ethical analyses of novel or controversial issues for which ethical consensus is lacking. Please see below for our team and key areas of research.
| Faculty | Key Research Topics |
|---|---|
| Trevor Bibler | Religion and medicine, clinical ethics, ethical issues at the end of life, medical education, methods in medical ethics |
| Claire Horner | Reproductive ethics, including reproductive technologies and embryo ethics; clinical ethics; Catholic bioethics (especially beginning-of-life issues such as abortion and reproductive technologies); Bioethics and the law; and medical education |
| Holland Kaplan | Clinical ethics, medical education, healthcare of the underserved, decision-making capacity, surrogate decision-making, and professional identity formation |
| Janet Malek | Ethical issues related to genetic and reproductive technologies, fetal therapy, and pediatrics; the practice of healthcare ethics consultation as well as issues that commonly arise in clinical settings (e.g., potentially inappropriate treatment, surrogate decision making, and refusals of recommended treatment); medical education and professional identity formation |
| Adam Omelianchuk | Death determination, deceased organ transplantation, xenotransplantation, clinical ethics, complex hospital discharges, end-of-life decision-making, intention and foresight in ethical reasoning |
| Matthew Shea | Clinical ethics, theories of bioethics, well-being and happiness, end-of-life ethics, unrepresented patients, disability bioethics |
| Jared Smith | Philosophical bioethics, clinical ethics, medical decision-making, psychiatric ethics, neuroethics (neuromodulation/neurostimulation), artificial intelligence use in medical care |
| Joanna Smolenski | Clinical ethics, with a special focus on clinical ethics consultation; philosophical bioethics, informed consent, decisional capacity, epistemic injustice in medical care, the ethics of germline gene editing, psychiatric ethics, and ECMO and medical futility |