Convocation: Edmund Pellegrino

Edmund Pellegrino has played a central role in shaping the fields of bioethics and the philosophy of medicine. His writings encompass original explorations of the healing relationship, the need to place humanism in the medical curriculum, the nature of the patient's good, and the importance of a virtue-based normative ethics for health care. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, he has authored or co-authored twenty books and is the founding editor of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Pellegrino is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics at the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center. In 2004, he was named to the International Bioethics Committee of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is the only advisory body within the United Nations system to engage in reflection on the ethical implications of advances in life sciences. He also serves as Chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics. The title of his presentation was "The Moral Foundation of Medical Practice."