Daniel Sulmasy is an American medical ethicist and former

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

friar. He has been Acting Director of the

Kennedy Institute of Ethics The Kennedy Institute of Ethics (also known as Joseph and Rose Kennedy Institute of Ethics) is one of the most prestigious bioethics institutes in the world. Located at Healy Hall, it was established at Georgetown University in 1971 as a bioethi ...

and on the faculty of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioetics was also named He is the inaugural Andre Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics, with co-appointments in the Departments of Philosophy and Medicine at Georgetown.

Biography

Sulmasy holds a Ph.D from Georgetown University and an M.D from Cornell University, and he completed his residency, chief residency, and post-doctoral fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Career

His research interests encompass both theoretical and empirical investigations of the ethics of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education, and spirituality in medicine. He has done extensive work on the role of intention in medical action, especially as it relates to the rule of double effect and the distinction between killing and allowing to die. He is also interested in the philosophy of medicine and the logic of diagnostic and therapeutic reasoning. His work in spirituality is focused primarily on the spiritual dimensions of the practice of medicine. His empirical studies have explored topics such as decision-making by surrogates on behalf of patients who are nearing death, and informed consent for biomedical research. He continued to practice medicine part-time as a member of the University faculty practice. He has previously held faculty positions at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and

New York Medical College New York Medical College (NYMC or New York Med) is a private medical school in Valhalla, New York. Founded in 1860, it is a member of the Touro College and University System. NYMC offers advanced degrees through its three schools: the School o ...

. He has served on numerous governmental advisory committees, and served on the

Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (the Bioethics Commission) was created by on November 24, 2009.Executive Order 13521 - ''Establishing the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues'', November 2 ...

from 2010-2017. He has also been a member of the Program Committee of the Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics. He holds emeritus status at the

, where he was Kilbride-Clinton Professor of Medicine and Ethics in the Department of Medicine and Divinity School, Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics in the Department of Medicine, and Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion.

Personal life

Formerly a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

friar, Sulmasy left the

Franciscans , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

in 2012 with the intention to marry.

Publications & Lectures

He is the author or editor of six books: ''The Healer's Calling'' (1997), ''Methods in Medical Ethics'' (2001; 2nd ed. 2010), ''The Rebirth of the Clinic'' (2006), ''A Balm for Gilead'' (2006), ''Safe Passage: A Global Spiritual Sourcebook for Care at the End of Life'' (2013), and ''Francis the Leper: Faith, Medicine, Theology, and Science'' (2014). He also serves as editor-in-chief of the journal ''

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics ''Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics: Philosophy of Medical Research and Practice'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering bioethics and the philosophy of medicine with a more theoretical outlook than other journals in this area. It ...

''. * ''The Healer’s Calling'' (1997) * ''Methods in Medical Ethics'' (1st ed., 2001; 2nd ed., 2010) * ''The Rebirth of the Clinic'' (2006) * ''A Balm for Gilead'' (2006) * ''Safe Passage: A Global Spiritual Sourcebook for Care at the End of Life'' (2014) * ''Francis the Leper: Faith, Medicine, Theology, and Science'' (2014) * He is currently working on another book on the ethical and spiritual aspects of care at the end of life entitled, ''The Hours of Our Dying'' (under contract with Oxford University Press). * He is the editor of ''Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics'' * Articles: Sulmasy has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals such as

The New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. His ...

JAMA ''The Journal of the American Medical Association'' (''JAMA'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of biom ...

Annals of Internal Medicine ''Annals of Internal Medicine'' is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians (ACP). It is one of the most widely cited and influential specialty medical journals in the world. ''Annals'' publishes content relevan ...

, The Journal of Clinical Oncology, The Hastings Center Report, and the

Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal The ''Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal'' is a quarterly academic journal established in 1991. It is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and focuses on questions of bioethics such as those ...

. He has also published 45 book chapters. * He has given frequent press commentary on bioethical issues for such venues as

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

the LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

, and

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

. * He is featured in the 2017 public television documentary, ''Your Health: A Sacred Matter''.

Awards and honors

*Hastings Center Fellow. 2004 * The Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. 2007 *Pellegrino Medal, Samford University. 2009 *Paul Ramsey Award for Excellence in Bioethics. 2014 * Master of the American College of Physicians. 2015 *Linacre Award. 2017

Grants

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

National Institute of Nursing Research The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), as part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, supports clinical and basic research to establish a scientific basis for the nursing care of individuals across the life span—from management ...

* John Templeton Foundation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sulmasy, Daniel 21st-century American philosophers Medical ethicists Cornell University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Hastings Center Fellows