Caplan,+Arthur

Biographical Information:
Dates: Dates in Ridgefield:

Ridgefielder Arthur Caplan is a highly esteemed and accomplished bioethicist. He is the director of the bioethics program at NYU Langone Medical Center. Previously, he founded and ran the Center for Bioethics and the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written or edited over 35 books and over 735 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Caplan’s accomplishments with a direct effect on the public and public policy include helping found the National Marrow Donor Program, creating the policy of required request in cadaver organ donation adopted throughout the United States, helping create the system by which organs are distributed in the U.S., and advising on legislation and regulations in many areas of health care. In 1989, while a professor at the University of Minnesota, he organized the first conference on bioethics and the Holocaust. He takes a "hands-on" approach to ethics and philosophy. As he said in an interview with Claudia Dreifus for //The New York Times Magazine// in 1996, "To me, the whole point of doing ethics is to change people, to change behavior. Why else do it?"

Caplan has served on many national and international committees and advisory panels in his field, and has received many awards and honorary degrees for his work. He is also a commentator on bioethics on many radio and television outlets and a contributor to WebMD’s MedScape. Caplan holds a BA in philosophy from Brandeis University and an MA, MPhil, and PhD in the history and philosophy of science from Columbia University.

Titles (Partial List):
//Vaccination Ethics and Policy: An Introduction with Readings//, co-editor, 2017 //The Ethics of Sport: Essential Readings//, co-editor, 2016 //Contemporary Debates in Bioethics//, co-editor, 2013 //Smart Mice, Not So Smart People//, 2008 //Am I My Brother’s Keeper?: The Ethical Frontiers of Biomedicine (Medical Ethics)//, 1998 //Due Consideration: Controversy in the Age of Medical Miracles//, 1997 //Moral Matters: Ethical Issues in Medicine and the Life Sciences//, 1994 //If I Were a Rich Man, Could I Buy a Pancreas?//, 1992

–Sources: [|wikipedia.com] and [|amazon.com]

Last Updated: June 18, 2017