Bioethics Hall of Fame, Henry K. Beecher Edition

My second nomination to the notional Bioethics Hall of Fame is Henry K. Beecher. Beecher, an distinguished anaesthesiologist, wrote a highly influential 1955 paper on the placebo effect; wrote a then-controversial 1966 paper which served as the single most important goad to regulation of research on human subjects; was one of the cast of all-star contributors to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences influential 1969 book, "Experimentation with Human Subjects" (Paul Freund, ed.); and chaired the Harvard Medical School ad hoc committee whose report supplied the first generally accepted criteria for brain death. Less well-known is Beecher's post-war work on LSD and mind-control, some of which was done on unconsenting subjects. Indeed, it may have been this military and CIA-sponsored work which led him, shortly thereafter, to embrace the necessity of informed consent.

Bioethics Hall of Fame: Paul Ramsey Edition

Over at blog.bioethics.net, Summer McGee has asked, "Who would you put in the bioethics hall of fame?"

So here's my first of many nominees: Paul Ramsey, author of Fabricated Man, Ethics at the Edges of Life, and The Patient as Person. He was one of the first-generation bioethicists who came, mostly, from moral theology backgrounds. Himself a Methodist, he is credited with having brought the Catholic doctrine of just war theory to the attention of mainstream Protestant ethicists. He is not, frankly, the easiest person to read; but his essays still repay careful attention, even when--or perhaps especially when--they wrestle with subjects about which most contemporary bioethicists have already reached consensus, e.g., cessation of life-sustaining treatment.