Madison Powers, J.D., D.Phil.
Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics; Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University
Dr. Powers is both a lawyer and philosopher by training. The theoretical focus of his research is best described as political philosophy, or more specifically the moral relationship between the state and the individual. He writes mainly on social justice, individual privacy, and personal freedom. He has a special interest in the application of these concepts to issues arising in health and environmental policy, and more
generally, as they pertain to the moral status of markets.
He served as a member of the Privacy Working Group of the Clinton Health Care Task Force and was appointed by President George W. Bush as a member of the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. He is a recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Investigator Award, and he is co-author with Ruth Faden of Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Health Public Health and Health Policy. His current research focus is on freedom and human flourishing in the political theories of Aristotle and Mill.
An emerging interest centers on the public regulatory policies and private resource decisions that contribute to the world water crisis in ways that systematically disadvantage many of the planet's most vulnerable and least powerful people.
Highlighted Publication
Dr. Powers' most recent book challenges the prevailing focus in bioethics discussions of justice on questions of fairness in access to health care. Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Care Policy argues that health care is only one of many factors that determine the extent to which people live healthy lives, and fairness is not the only consideration in determining whether a health policy is just.
Reviewers:
"Powers and Faden have given us a powerful and lucid theory that gives us the tools to unify our work in such disparate areas as bioethics, public health, global justice, and human rights. All of us who work in this area are in their debt."
--John D. Arras, Porterfield Professor of Biomedical Ethics, University of Virginia
"Social Justice is one of the most important books to come out in bioethics, and health policy ethics, in the last decade. It challenges us to think more broadly about what bioethics brings to the table when we evaluate health policies and public health practices. Its combination of rigor and clarity is uncommon."
--Peter Ubel, M.D., Director, Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine, Ann Arbor