Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD (1920-2013), Founding Director

Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., M.A.C.P.

Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Georgetown University

View the PCCB documentary on Dr. Pellegrino’s life here

Edmund Pellegrino, MD, was Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University and founding director of the Center for Clinical Bioethics. He served as Chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics in Washington, DC, John Carroll Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics and as director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and the Center for the Advanced Study of Ethics at Georgetown University. He received his BS degree from St. John’s University and his MD from New York University. He served residencies in medicine at Bellevue, Goldwater Memorial, and Homer Folks Tuberculosis Hospitals, following which he was a research fellow in renal medicine and physiology at New York University. During Dr. Pellegrino’s more than 65 years in medicine and university administration, he has been a departmental chairman, dean, vice chancellor and president.

Dr. Pellegrino authored over 600 published items in medical science, philosophy, and ethics, and served as a member of numerous editorial boards. He was the author or co-author of twenty-three books, and the founding editor of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. Dr. Pellegrino was a Master of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and recipient of 52 honorary doctorates in addition to other honors and awards including the Benjamin Rush Award from the American Medical Association, the Abraham Flexner Award of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Laetare Award of the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Pellegrino’s research interests include the history and philosophy of medicine, professional ethics, and the physician-patient relationship.

Watch Dr. Pellegrino’s address at the Georgetown University School of Medicine Class of 2009 White Coat Ceremony.

Listen to the public debate on legalizing physician assisted suicide by Edmund Pellegrino, MD and Geoffrey Fieger, JD. (At the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity at Trinity International University).

View the book, The Philosophy of Medicine Reborn A Pellegrino Reader (ND Studies in Medical Ethics)