Welcome to the Edmund D. Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics
The PCCB faculty and staff pledge solidarity with social movements like Black Lives Matter and with Georgetown leadership who are seeking to promote justice and to address systemic racism and discrimination. Read more
(June 22, 1920 – June 13, 2013)
Portrait by Jerry Crowley
The Pellegrino Center provides university-based ethics resources for individuals who shape and give health care. We are committed to the dynamic interplay between theory and practice, experience, and reflection. Center scholars bring expertise in theology, philosophy, basic science, and clinical practice to today’s ethical challenges. We seek to promote serious ethical reflection and discourse in pursuit of a just society and health care that affirms the dignity and social nature of all persons.
News and Announcements
2025 John Collins Harvey Lecture: A Conversation with Siva Subramanian, MD, Clinical Professor Emeritus and former Chief, Division of Neonatology, Georgetown University Medical Center. Interviewed by G. Kevin Donovan, MD, Director Emeritus, The Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. May 30, 2025 at 3:00 pm via ZOOM. MORE INFORMATION
IBC 46 will honor the legacy of bioethics pioneer Tom Beauchamp, who died on February 19, 2025. The early bird registration deadline has been extended to May 15, and a limited number of student registrations is available for medical and graduate students. More information
The long-awaited volume Pellegrino’s Clinical Bioethics: A Compendium (edited by Director Emeritus G. Kevin Donovan, MD, MA; Associate Director for Academic Programs David G. Miller, PhD, who worked with Dr. Pellegrino for over 30 years; and Director of the Ethics Consultation Service Claudia Ruiz Sotomayor, MD, DBe has been published by Catholic University Press. Learn more
On Tuesday, April 8, the Pellegrino Center co-sponsored The 2025 Code of Ethics for Nurses: Bringing the Code to Life with Georgetown University School of Nursing, MedStar Health, and Ethics of Caring. The Values Based Lecture featured Jennifer L. Bartlett, PhD, MEDSURG-BC, CNE, CHSE. Learn more
On Wednesday, April 2, Georgetown’s new Emergent Ethics Network of which the PCCB is a founding member, co-hosted the Network’s first Distinguished Lecture by disability rights activist and internet pioneer Vint Cerf, who spoke on ethical issues at the intersection of bioethics, environmental justice, and the ethics of digital technology. Learn more
Myles N. Sheehan, SJ, MD, director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, David Lauler Professor of Health Care Ethics, and professor of medicine, was the homilist in the annual Rose Mass honoring health care workers on March 30 at the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda. Read more
On March 13 the PCCB hosted “Neural Transformation and Digital Intervention: Rethinking Maternal Health Research” with Dr. Maria Kuhn, German Fulbright Foundation Fellow at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics
The PCCB co-sponsored a conference February 27-28 at Catholic University of America here in Washington, DC on “Integrity in the Concept and Determination of Brain Death.” Speakers included PCCB faculty members Allen H. Roberts II, MD, M.Div., MA ; Daniel P. Sulmasy, MD, PhD ; and Sarah B. Vittone, RN, MA, MSN, DBe, HEC-C . More information
The 2025 Pellegrino Symposium took place on Friday, February 14, 2025 and featured Mens moralis mentis: Professor James Giordano and Two Decades of Neuroethics at Georgetown
More information
PCCB faculty member Joel Michael Reynolds, an associate professor of philosophy and disability studies at Georgetown University in Washington, presided over a Jan. 8 Catholic Health Association webinar titled “The Health of People with Disabilities: Addressing Ableism and Disparities in the Clinic.”
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Center for Clinical Bioethics Programs
Your Health: A Sacred Matter
Watch this public television documentary on spirituality, religion, and medicine. Earn two free credits of CME/CEU for watching the entire film.