Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the
University of Pennsylvania, where he also holds appointments in the Department
of Medical Ethics and the Department of Sociology. He is a Senior Fellow of
Penn's Center for Bioethics, is the Director of the Program in Psychiatry and
Ethics at the School of Medicine, and is a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis
Institute for Health Economics. He is also a member of Penn's cancer Center and
Center for AIDS Research. In 2008, Dr. Wolfe was appointed director of Emory
University's Center for Ethics.
Dr. Wolpe also serves as the first Chief of Bioethics for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The office is responsible for
safeguarding the protections of research subjects and astronauts both within
NASA and among our international space partners.
Dr. Wolpe did his undergraduate work in the sociology and psychology of
religion at the University of Pennsylvania, and went on to receive his Ph.D. in
Medical Sociology from Yale University under an NIMH grant in Mental Health
Services Research and Evaluation. After graduate school in 1986, Wolpe began
teaching at Penn, and has taught there in one capacity or another since then.
From 1988-1992, his full-time position was as the Coordinator of Research on
the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College.
His research examines the role of ideology and culture in medical thought,
encompassing such diverse fields as genetics and reproduction; neuroethics and
the integration of biotechnology into the human body; mental health and
illness; human subjects research; religion and its role in bioethical debate,
and death and dying.
Dr. Wolpe is the author of more than 100 articles and book chapters. His
writings range across multiple fields of sociology and bioethics, including
mental health and illness, death and dying, genetics and eugenics, gender,
alternative medicine, and bioethics in extreme environments such as space.
Wolpe is a co-author of the textbook "Sexuality and Gender in Society" and the
guide to Jewish end-of-life decision-making, "Behoref Hayamim: In the Winter of
Life." A founder of the field of neuroethics, which examines the ethical
implications of neuroscience, Wolpe also writes about other emerging
technologies, such as nanotechnology, genetic engineering and prosthetics.
Dr. Wolpe sits on the national boards of organizations such as the American
Society of Bioethics and Humanities, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's
National Medical Committee, and the National Embryo Donation Advisory Board of
RESOLVE, as well as others.
He is the first national bioethics advisor for the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America, helping that organization plan for the changing social
dynamics and emerging reproductive technologies that will influence women's
reproduction over the coming decades. He is one of the few non-physicians to be
elected a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the country's
oldest medical society.
He sits on a number of journal editorial boards, and is the Special Features
Editor of the American Journal of Bioethics. He serves as a bioethics advisor
to private industry, and to governmental agencies such as the Philadelphia
Department of Human Services, Children and Youth Division. The winner of a
number of teaching and writing awards, Dr. Wolpe has been chosen by The
Teaching Company as a "Superstar Teacher of America" and his courses are
nationally distributed on audio and videotape. Wolpe is a regular columnist on
biotechnology for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and appears frequently in the
broadcast media, including MSNBC, CBS and ABC Evening News, Dateline, and The
Jim Lehrer Show, and has recently been cited in news sources such as The
Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week,
The Los Angeles Times, and U.S. News and World Report.
Our Vision of Ourselves: Cloning, Genetics, and the Media
People's knowledge of genetics, and the ways they think of themselves as
genetic beings, are largely due to the way the media reports on genetics. Using
slides of magazine covers, cartoons, and other examples of popular media, we
explore the message the media is sending the public about genes, stem cells,
alternative medicine, cloning, and the new genetic biotechnologies.
Managing Care: Ethical and Social Challenges of the Modern Healthcare System
The healthcare system is in constant flux today, and the managed care system is
scrambling to reform in response to economic need and consumer anger. Bioethics
offers a different perspective on the problems of the current system and
suggestions for reform.
Ethical Leadership in Health Care
Designed for executive and top management teams in pharmaceutical, managed
care, and other health care industries, this lecture uses the insights of
bioethics to suggest ways industry can positions itself in the market as
standard-bearers of ethical medical conduct. Some simple guidelines are offered
for those companies seeking to improve the ethical leadership of their
executives and top management.
