Romanell Center for Clinical Ethics and the Philosophy of Medicine

The Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care, established at the University at Buffalo in 1994, is now the Romanell Center for Clinical Ethics and the Philosophy of Medicine. The name change honors the 2003 testimentary gift bestowed by Edna Romanell, while reflecting a focus on bioethics in today's complex health care concerns. As a multi-disciplinary center with a long tradition of coordinating academic activities, the Center is poised to expand collaborative research and experience-based learning at UB to better serve the communities of Western New York, Southern Ontario, and borders beyond our own.

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KEYLIGHT

Journal of Medical Ethics publishes target article by Phil Reed

Romanell Center fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Canisius College Philip Reed recently published a target article, "Expressivism at the Beginning and End of Life," in the Journal of Medical Ethics 46 (2020): 538-544. The article addresses how certain controversial biomedical practices might send a message of disrespect to the disabled. Learn more.

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Harvey Berman
7/27/17
Harvey Berman is a pharmacologist responsible for teaching Doctors of Pharmacy (PharmD) and of Medicine (MD) in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. His teaching and research interests are in adverse drug interactions, pharmacogenomics, ethics of drug clinical trials, pain palliation and geriatric pharmacology.
Timothy J. Madigan
4/2/20
Timothy J. Madigan, Ph.D, is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York, and the founder of its Irish Studies Program. Madigan’s areas of interest include Medical Ethics, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, and Popular Culture and Philosophy. He is the President of the Bertrand Russell Society and the former President of the Northeast Popular Culture Association. Madigan was the first editor of the Romanell Center’s “Bioethics Bulletin.”
Jack Freer, Co-Director
5/17/20
Jack Freer M.D. is a clinical professor, emeritus, and the co-director of the Romanell Center. He was the course director of IDM 701 (the required medical students' clinical ethics course) for 30 years. He has organized the Romanell Clinical and Research Ethics Seminar, as well as many other conferences and lecture series over the course of his career.
Catherine Nolan
7/27/17
Catherine Nolan defended her dissertation, The Ethics and Metaphysics of Vital Organ Donation, at SUNY Buffalo in 2015. She is presently an affiliate associate professor at the University of Dallas. She is interested in questions at the intersection of metaphysics and bioethics. Her dissertation focused on the definition of death and the impossibility of diagnosing it with certainty in time to explant vital organs, concluding that it is more practical to attempt to avoid causing death than to diagnose death.
David Hershenov, Co-Director
4/2/20
David Hershenov, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at the University at Buffalo and the co-director of the Romanell Center. His earlier research was focused upon issues at the intersection of personal identity and bioethics. His more recent research interests are in the philosophy of medicine.
Barry Smith
7/27/17
As an undergraduate, Barry Smith studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Oxford, before earning his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in 1976. Currently, he holds the position of Julian Park Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science, and Neurology at the University of Buffalo in New York.