Sulmasy recognized for Excellence in Medical Ethics by Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM)
SGIM Program Co-Chair Jenny Schmidt, MD; Dr. Sulmasy; Council Liaison/President Martha Gerrity, MD, MPH, PhD; and Program Chair Zirui Song, MD, PhD
Daniel P. Sulmasy, MD, PhD, André Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, received the Society for General Internal Medicine’s 2024 award for Excellence in Medical Ethics at the Society’s annual meeting on Saturday, May 18, 2024 in Boston, MA.
The award recognizes “the original scholarship that SGIM members have done to advance medical ethics,” and “promotes and rewards outstanding contributions to the field of medical ethics, including not only traditional scholarship such as publication of research but also viewpoint articles, educational materials, popular writing, oral presentations, and efforts to influence health policy.”
Daniel P. Sulmasy, MD, PhD is the director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and holds a joint appointment at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is the inaugural André Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics, with co-appointments in the Departments of Philosophy and Medicine. He practices medicine part-time as a member of the Georgetown University faculty practice.
Previously, he was at the University of Chicago as the Kilbride-Clinton Professor of Medicine and Ethics in the Department of Medicine and Divinity School, Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, and Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion. Additionally, he has held faculty positions at Georgetown University and New York Medical College. He received his AB and MD degrees from Cornell University, completed his residency, chief residency, and post-doctoral fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and holds a PhD in philosophy from Georgetown. He has served on numerous governmental advisory committees, and was appointed to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues by President Obama in 2010.
His research interests encompass both theoretical and empirical investigations of the ethics of end-of-life decision-making, ethics education, and spirituality in medicine. He is the author or editor of seven books: The Healer’s Calling (1997), Methods in Medical Ethics (2001; 2nd ed. 2010), The Rebirth of the Clinic (2006), A Balm for Gilead (2006), Safe Passage: A Global Spiritual Sourcebook for Care at the End of Life (2013), Francis the Leper: Faith, Medicine, Theology, and Science (2014), and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Before, During, and After the Holocaust (2020). He also serves as editor-in-chief of the journal Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.
The Kennedy Institute of Ethics is one of the world’s premier bioethics institutes. Founded at
Georgetown University in 1971, its faculty have included founders of the field as well as next-
generation leaders. With a top-ranked graduate program, the world’s most comprehensive bioethics library, a highly praised intensive summer course for health care practitioners, and faculty expertise on issues such as death and dying, clinical research ethics, reproductive ethics, disability ethics, and environmental ethics, the Institute is a renowned resource for the University, the policy world, and the global bioethics community.