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I am an professor of philosophy at the University of Rochester, with research and teaching interests in public health ethics, neuroethics, and political philosophy.
In addition to my primary appointment in Philosophy, I also serve as chair of the Steering Committee for the Public Health-Related Majors, a group of five interdisciplinary majors: Bioethics, Environmental Health, Epidemiology, Health Policy, and Health, Behavior, and Society. Within the program, I direct the Bioethics major. I also I work with the Clinical Ethics program in the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester Medical School. Outside Rochester, I serve on the (mostly defunct) Ethics Committee of the Empire State Stem Cell Board for the State of New York. 
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"My country is the world and my religion to do good."
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Research
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My research falls into four broad categories. First, I work in a number of issues in health care ethics. I am especially interested in the ethical justifications for public health initiatives and particularly those for newborn screening. In addition, I have an interest in the myriad of ethical issues that arise in organ transplants and in the complex set of ethical issues at the intersection of neuroscience, neurology, and ethics. I have a special interest in the extent to which we think that we should be able to use medicine to modify our brains to improve our memory, our cognition, our moods, and our personality.
Second, related to these issues, I have been teaching and writing about the meaning and implications of death, both for how it affects bioethical issues and for how it affects the way we create meaning in our lives. Third, I have a continuing interest in the social and conceptual foundations of liberal institutions and practices. I have a special interest in the philosophical justifications for toleration, which is the subject of my book Trust and Toleration. Fourth, I study the historical foundations of modern politics in the eighteenth century, with an emphasis on the works of the great Scottish philosopher David Hume and those of the American Founders. |
Teaching
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Philosophy is not a set of facts to be learned, but a method of inquiry. I hope both to model that method and to encourage it in my students, through discussions and writing assignments.
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Graduates in Bioethics 2023
Teaching, Fall 2025
PHIL 228: Public Health Ethics.. Most health care ethics focuses on the individual decisions about treatments, but many ethical questions have implications for society at large. The demands that individual health decisions make on the system may create collective problems, and conversely, the needs of society may limit the freedoms that individuals think they should have. Public health ethics then, lie at the intersection of medicine, political philosophy, and public policy. This course will examine the values of health, social needs, and freedom through a systematic examination of situations in which these conflicts arise. We will examine the issues by looking at it through three levels: through theoretical readings in philosophy, through readings in the broad issues of public health, and by considering case studies.
Teaching, Spring 2026
PHIL 313 Global Health Ethics. The world is interconnected, and what happens in one country affects—both directly and indirectly—what happens in other countries. For health issues this fact is especially true, as the rapid spread of Covid-19 vividly demonstrated. The moral issues that arise from these interconnections are particularly vexing, and this class will examine some of them. Is the 40-year gap in life expectancy between Sierra Leone and Japan unjust? Is the “brain drain’ of health care workers from poorer countries to richer countries unfair? Does the global market in organs create ethical problems? What obligations do individuals and countries have to alleviate the health burdens in the world? If so, how great is that obligation? How can such aid be provided ethically?.
PHIL 321 Death. Death poses a number of philosophical puzzles: What does it mean to die? Am I harmed when I die? I don’t experience my death or being dead, so why would it be bad for me? Is it appropriate, then, to fear my death? Is it wrong to kill myself? Can I be harmed after I die? If dying is bad, would it be better if I never died, if I lived forever? Does the fact of that we will die change the way we should live? Does death shape the meaning of our lives?
Future Teaching (Tentative)
Fall 2026: PHIL 228 Public Health Ethics
Spring 2027: PHIL 321 Death
PHLT 300/PHIL 311 Seminar in Bioethics
Fall 2027: PHIL 228 Public Health Ethics
Spring 2028: PHIL 312 Neuroethics
PHIL 321 Death
Contact information
Office hours: Fall 2025
Tuesdays, 11:30-1:30 an by appointment
(Zoom appointments available)
Tuesdays, 11:30-1:30 an by appointment
(Zoom appointments available)
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offices |
Lattimore Hall 529
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